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THE RECIPE FOR 
DIAMONDS 

By C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE 



j ENTERED AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YOm<^^a^^ECOND-CL^88^^MAIL^^MA7TEW^^^^^^^ 

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THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS 


BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 

THE NEW EDEN. 

FOUR RED NIGHTCAPS. 

A MATRIMONIAL MIXTURE. 


THE RECIPE FOR 
DIAMONDS 


BY / 

c. j. cutcliffe' hyne 




NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
1893 





Copyright, 1893, 

By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 



Electrotyped and Printed 
AT THE Appleton Press, U. S. A. 


TO 

MY FATHER AND MOTHER 

TO WHOM I OWE 


MOST THINGS 



PKEF ACE. 


The inception of this hook took place in the dis- 
tant year 1886^ when the movements hereinafter de- 
scribed were mapped out xvith harassing distinctness. 
At that time the present writer^ though little sus- 
pected of such a vagary^ was poring over the allo- 
tropes of carbon^ and endeavouring strongly to trans- 
mute the amorphous into the crystalline form, A 
catholic taste for Roiving^ Dancing,, Dming,, and the 
Driving of “ Four-in-hand or Tandem Carriages ” {as 
forbidden by parochial statute),, formed a most effi- 
cient mask to the idea of any commercial pursuit ; 
and it is to be doubted ivhether any one single man up 
in Cambridge at that time has to this day a notion 
of those sub rosd researches. 

As to what results were obtained,, that is another 
matter. The reader in search of amusement need not 
fear being pestered with .scientific disquisitions here,, 
on the wholesale; or even domestic manufacture of 


PREFACE. 


viii 

diamonds : what little ivas found out — and some 
startling results discovered themselves — is far too 
valuable to be peddled away in a mere six-shilling 
%vorlc of fiction. 

An opportunity for visiting the Balearic Islands 
and some of the other spots mentioned in that original 
hard-and-fast synopsis did not occur till quite re- 
cently^ and as there was a similar delay in hitting 
upon some of the characters in the flesh, a safety- 
valve for these alchemical tastes was found in another 
direction : the making of diamonds was lugged into 
another book {since happily defunct) ivhich saw the 
light anno 1888. To-day the Author believes that this 
is the only plagiarism which the present volume con- 
tains ; but in handmg it over to the professional 
critic and each other member of the general public 
who is a bit of a thief himself, he has full assurance 
of being shotvn conclusively hoxo each and every inci- 
dent in the book has already been written about sev- 
eral times before. 

Authors' Club. 

May, 1893. 


CONTENTS 


1. 

Big game .... 

• 

• 

• 

t 

PAGK 

1 

II. 

Halcyonii dies 

• 

• 

• 

• 

11 

III. 

Vagabond .... 

• 

• 

% * 

• 

21 

IV. 

Mr. Weems and his purchase 

• 

• 

• 

• 

37 

V. 

Wanted, a passage 

• 

• 

• 

• 

50 

VI. 

Fore and aft seamanship . 

• 

• 

• 

• 

GO 

VII. 

A DIPLOMATIC removal 

• 

• 

• 

• 

84 

VIII. 

Two evenings 

• 

« 

• 

• 

95 

IX. 

Talaiti de Talt . 

• 

• 

% 

• 

110 

X. 

With a three-angled hoe . 

• 

• 

• 

* 

• 

123 

XI. 

The red delf amphora 

• 

f 

• 

t 

139 

XII. 

A professional conspirator 

• 

• 

• 

• 

153 

XIII. 

At a Mallorquin fonda 

• 

• 

• 

• 

173 

XIV. 

Hereingefallen . 

t 

• 

• 

• 

184 

XV. 

Camaraderie .... 

• 

• 

• 

• 

193 

XVI. 

Cruelly interrupted . 

• 

• 

• 

• 

204 

XVII. 

Ventre a terre . 

• 

t 

• 

• 

230 




’ J 



t 



THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


{^Extracted from the home correspondence of George Slade Methuen^ Esq.y 
which was written at his hired place on the Foldenfjord.l 

I. 

BIG GAME. 

. . . The first shot was just a rib too far back, and 
though it staggered him, he didn’t stop to it Out 
tinkled cartridge number one and in went a second, 
and “ cluch ” said the breech-block. And then as he 
slewed round, I got the next bullet home, bang behind 
the shoulder. That did it. He tucked down his long 
Roman nose and went heels over tip like a shot rabbit : 
and when a big elk that stands seventeen hands at the 
withers plays that trick, I tell you it shows a new 
hand something he hadn’t much idea of before. 

We ran up eagerly enough. “ Meget stor hock^'* 
shouted Ulus, and whipped out his knife, and pro- 
ceeded to do the offices, being filled with strong glee 
which he imparted to the driving rain, the swishing 
trees, and my dripping self. 

And by Jove, his highness was a beauty, too ! 
Antlers in velvet, of course, as is the fashion with all 
Norwegian deer at this time of year; but there were 
eight points on each, and they’ve got the most ap- 


2 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


proved “ impudent ” downward curve. What with no 
rype and few trout, I’d been feeling rather down on 
my luck all these long weeks till now, but this big elk 
turned the scale. Glad I came. 

September nights drop down early here, and day 
was getting on, so we hurried up with the work, and 
loitered not for tempting admiration. Off came the 
coarse-haired pelt, pull by pull ; and away dropped 
head and neck, after a haggle through sinew and 
vertebrae ; and then we got heavy stones and built in 
the meat securely, lest the lynxes should thieve the 
lot. It all took time, and meanwhile the weather 
worsened steadily. The rain was snorting down in 
heavy squalls, and often there were crashes from 
amongst the pines. But the stor hocFs trophies re- 
paid one for these things. 

At last we got through the obsequies, shouldered 
the spoils between us, and started. 

It was slow passage. On this primaeval ground 
one is so constantly being baulked. There are so 
many knotted jungles of splintered rock, such fre- 
quent swamps, so much fallen timber. And, more- 
over, the water- courses and torrents were all new- 
bloated with the rain, so that we had to cast about 
for fords, and then to grip one another at stiff arm’s 
length, so as not to get swept adrift whilst wading 
amongst the eddying boulders. And when at last we 
did come to the lake, we saw there in the grey dusk a 



BIG GAME. 


3 


thing which caused Ulus to offer up hot words in 
Norsk, which were not words of prayer. 

To remind you again of where we were : 

Some eight miles distant in crowflight was the 
salt-water fjord. From it two mountain walls sprout 
out towards the North. At first the valley between 
these is filled with land which is mostly forest. Then 
comes a lake, hemmed by two precipices. Then an- 
other two-mile-wide strip of forest. Then another 
lake with shiny granite walls running up sheer two 
thousand feet, so that of the fosses which jump in 
cream over the brinks above, only the stouter ones 
reach more than half-way down. 

We were on the further side of this last sheet of 
water, and across it lay our only practicable way to 
the coast — to home, dinner, dry things, and other mat- 
ters longed for. And on this lake a lake-sea was run- 
ning, short, quick, and steep, which is the wettest of 
all seas for small craft to tackle. The boat which had 
carried us up was one of those retrousse-TiO^Q^ punts 
peculiar to the country, the very worst possible breed 
of craft for the weather. She would not face it for 
thirty seconds. Her turn-up snout would fall off the 
moment we left the shingle, she would fill and swamp, 
and we should be left a swim without having in any 
degree furthered our cause. AVherefore I also bowed 
to the inevitable, but like Ulus I said things. There 
was no chance of reaching the abodes of men by any 


4 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


other route. We were booked till the gale chose to 
ease : at any rate, till morning : and for myself I 
contemplated a moist bivouac under streaming J ove, 
with one clammy elk-skin for a joint coverlet. 

But luckily Ulus was a man of the land, besides 
being a vagrant hunter. He led back into the forest. 
A score of yards from the margin, in an overgrown 
clearing, was an abandoned saeter hut. It was in none 
of the best of repair ; was seven feet square inside ; and 
held five feet of head-room under the roof-tree. It 
was about half filled with dried birch-bark, piled up 
against the further end. It also contained a rude 
wooden trough and ball for pounding up coffee, three 
sections of pine-stem for seats, and a rusted old stove 
which had not been worth carrying away. 

Four 'words made a division of labour. Ulus set- 
off to revisit the stor boch^ Se going with him in case 
there should be any doubt about the track. It was 
my task to create a blaze with the dry spluttering 
birch-bark, and collect a stick of solider fuel to feed 
it with. Afterwards I went and stopped the more 
obvious gaps in the roof with turf and logs ; and by 
the time these things were done, hunter and hound 
had returned. Then we wrung the supersaturation 
of wet from our clothes, and Se had a centrifugal 
shake ; and so prepared, we went inside. Thanks to 
wasteful use of an absent person’s store of birch-bark, 
the place was warm as an oven. Such an atmosphere 


BIG GAME. 


5 


was grateful and comforting. Se indeed revelled in 
the heat too much at first, and pressing over near its 
source, thrust out a moist black nose, and got the full 
effect. There followed a hiss and a howl, and a sulky 
retreat to the further angle. Then we two bipeds 
hacked off gobbets from the venison, and taking us 
sharpened sticks, roasted and charred and toasted the 
meat in the doorway of the stove and over the gap in 
its lid. And in time we made a satisfying meal, 
though the courses straggled, and their texture was 
savage. And so on to pipes, and water boiled in a 
pewter flask-cup with whiskey added, whilst the in- 
jured Se champed over juicy rib-bones in his corner. 

The hum and crackle from the stove, the grinding 
of the grey dog’s teeth, the bumping and hissing of 
^\e gale outside, the boom of the cascades at the 
precipices, made up most of the sounds for that even- 
ing. Of chat there was a paucity. My knowledge of 
Norsk extends to few parts of speech beyond the 
common noun ; and Ulus, ignorant person that he is, 
has no Sassenach : pantomime makes our usual 
phrase-book. Talk under these circumstances is a 
strain, and we were too tired for unnecessary athletics. 
So we smoked, and pondered over the slaying of the 
great deer. 

In a while we discarded the stump-stools, and trun- 
dled them aside. A bunk ran along the further side 
of the hut where the bark had been stowed, but I had 


6 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAJMONDS. 


my doubts about its vacancy and surrendered it to 
Ulus. His hide is tough; he had no qualms. I 
spread for myself a spring mattress of birch-bark 
upon the floor. Se annexed the clammy skin. And so 
we were all satisfied. 

One does not wind up watches in these regions, 
and as time is arbitrarily marked off by the cries of 
the gastric juices, I cannot tell you how the hours 
were reckoned up that evening. I think we two hu- 
mans verged into a semi-torpid condition after that 
barbaric meal. Repletion, heat, and fatigue were too 
strong a combination for complete wakefulness ; and 
though perhaps not exactly asleep, we were, like hi- 
bernating animals, very dully conscious of passing 
events. Se’s condition was inscrutable. His eyes 
were closed, but that is no criterion. He may have 
been asleep. But yet he possessed certain senses more 
keenly active than ours. As evidence of this, when 
the night had worn on to a tolerable age, we heard 
him give a growl in crescendo^ and then a short 
yap. 

Se in general is undemonstrative to a degree. 
Hence the short culminating bark, which might have 
been overlooked if emanating from another dog, in 
his case commanded attention. 

I rose on an elbow, but could hear no new sound 
except the soft rustle of Ulus’ wet clothes. He was 
moving too. There was a pause. Presently he whis- 


BIG GAME. 


7 


pered Bjorn , and I saw in the stove’s faint glow 
the butt of the Martini steal across to me. 

You can lay your life to it I was awake enough 
then. What sportsman in Norway would not tingle 
with delight at the chance of getting a bear? Ulus 
had slipped a thong round Se’s throat, and that wily 
hound was mute. He was as keen on hjorn as either 
of us, and being grey, and vastly experienced, he knew 
better than to bay or otherwise create a disturbance. 

“ Patron ? ” whispered Ulus. 

I loaded cautiously, not sending the lever quite 
home, so as to avoid a click ; and nodded. Then we 
slipped our knife-sheaths round to the hip — for a shot 
in the dark is apt to wound only and cause a red- 
mouthed charge — and then the door was opened. 

We stooped and went outside. The rain was 
tumbling in sheets ; the night was dark as the pit, 
and very noisy; we could make out nothing. Se 
strained forward in the leash, neck thrust out, nose 
on high, up wdnd towards the lake shore. As we 
neared the edge of the clearing, a falling branch 
struck me across the face. The pine-needles stung, 
and I stopped, blinded for the moment. Then Ulus 
gripped my shoulder and I wiped the tears away, and 
saw dimly a dark shape coming out of the trees. The 
Martini swung up, and I squinted along the barrel. 
A mountain-ash was in the line of fire, swishing, 
swaying, so that it was impossible to aim, but the 


8 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


animal was coming along bravely, had not seen us 
probably, and so I determined to hold the shot till I 
could make sure. 

The beast came nearer, dodging amongst the 
stems. 

Suddenly, as it got into an opener space, I noted 
that it was erect. This surprised me, for I had heard 
that bears never reared on to their hind-feet till 
wounded. But still you can bet that I intended to 
shoot first, and inquire afterwards. 

But just at that moment Ulus screamed “ Nei 
Ijorn^"^ and hitting up the rifle barrel brought my fin- 
ger sufficiently hard on the hair trigger to cause ex- 
plosion. The shot went Lord knows where ; I swore, 
and when the echoes had finished bellowing, I heard 
the bear swearing too. Then I began to sweat, for 
it dawned upon me that I had been within an ace of 
deliberately potting a man. 

Ulus also used powerful language, and by letting 
drop the word “ Finne^'' gave me to understand that 
he supposed the intruder to be a Laplander; but it 
seemed to me that the shape that loomed through 
the trees was too big for one of those dwarfish abo- 
rigines. And, moreover, although I only caught the 
import of the stranger’s words by tone and not by 
literal meaning, I could have taken affidavit that 
none of them were Norsk. 

How'ever, we did not stay in igrlofanc^ long. Be- 


BIG GAME. 


0 


fore the powder smoke had been all driven away by 
the rain the intruder was out of the trees, and had 
pulled up in front of us, chuckling. Then : — “ Hallo, 
an Englishman? How we islanders do get to out-of- 
the-way chinks of the globe ! ” 

He paused, and I began to apologise — to say how 
sorry I was, and work up a neat speech generally ; 
when he cut me short. 

“ Nearly sent me to the happy hunting grounds, 
Sir? Well, perhaps so, p’raps not. I’ve seen men 
missed at shorter rise.” 

I was a bit piqued at this, and said something 
about being pretty useful with a rifle. 

He laughed again. “ We won’t quarrel over it, 
Sir, anyway. I expect we’re both of us satisfied as it 
is. My hide would have been no use to you, and, for 
myself, I’m quite content to wear it a bit longer. It 
fits tolerably enough. But you’ve a camp somewhere 
hereaway, haven’t you? I thought I caught the 
gleam of a fiying spark from down by the shingle 
yonder. That’s what brought me up.” 

I explained how we had got pinned in by the gale, 
and the quartette of us went back to the saeter hut. 
The new-comer feasted there off elk-venison (con- 
triving to cook it, I noticed, much more cannily than 
we had done, though with exactly the same appli- 
ances), and between whiles he was told of the chase 
of the meget stor hock — the tracking, the view, and 


10 


TPIE KECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


the place of the bullet-wounds. Afterwards, when 
we got to pipes and the last drainings of the grog, 
he explained his presence. 

“ I expect the wandering Englishman is about as 
scarce up here as the hoopoo, even when he’s got a 
rifle or a rod in his fist ; and, as I’ve neither the one 
nor the other, I must be very much of a rara avis, 
and quite the sort of animal to shoot on sight. Fact 
is, I was round on the fjord there with my boat, and 
from what my eyes showed me, and from what a local 
topografisk chart told, the country on the norrard side 
was much as God stuck it together. And then, as I 
wanted to see a strip of that sort up here, I fixed a 
rendezvous and slipped ashore. As it turned out, 
the map is a pretty bad one, and I lost time in cuts- 
de-sac. Finally came this lake with the steep flanks. 
I couldn’t see to prick out another course, and I was 
just casting about for a rock that held a dry lee, when 
I saw your light. And now, as I hear you chaps 
yawning and as I’m about spun out, ’twouldn’t be a 
bad notion to turn in.” 


II. 

HALCYONII DIES. 

It is a tolerably insane amusement for a foreigner 
to go trampling over wild fjelds and valleys in North- 
ern Norway with no other guide than the thing they 
call an ordnance map, and a bit of a pocket compass. 
And to do the same without intent to slay the beasts, 
the birds, or the fish of the country, seems, to my 
way of thinking, even more mad still. Perhaps I am 
peculiarly constituted : but that’s the way it strikes 
me personally. So I was rather curious to know what 
make of man it was that did these things. 

Overnight I had seen little of him that was not 
heavily shadowed. The stranger preferred to do his 
own cooking, saying that he was used to it, and had 
elected to heat his meat at the doorway of the stove. 
Through this gap little radiance escaped. The only 
matters illuminated were the slices of venison, the 
toasting* splinter, and the hands that held it alter- 
nately. These last, being the solitary things one’s 
eyes could make out, naturally were glanced over 


12 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


more than once. They were slightly above the medi- 
um size for hands, and long in proportion to their 
breadth. The fingers were tapered like a woman’s. 
The nails were filbert-shaped, and grimy with recent 
climbing. The palms were hard. The knuckle-side 
was very brown, and showed the tendons prominently. 
They were those lean nervous sort of hands which you 
find out at times can grip like thumbscrews. 

My couch was an uneasy one, and I awoke early. 
The visitor was snoring away on the log-fioor, looking 
comfortable and contented. 

He was a man of about two and thirty, dark, tall, 
and well-built. His clothes were those of the mer- 
chant seamen : that is, they smacked in no degree 
whatever of the sea. Indeed, the only outward things 
which connected him with the water were certain 
weather stains. He wore a moustache cropped some- 
what over close, and the teeth then showing beneath 
it, though white, were chaotic, and moreover there 
was the purple ridge of a scar running from the cor- 
ner of his mouth which might advantageously have 
been hidden. A beard also would have become him, 
for his chin verged slightly to the cut-away type, and 
a three-days’ stubble looks merely unkempt. He 
would never have been a beauty, but groomed up 
he would have made a very passable appearance 
amongst other men, although the scar near his mouth, 
and another similar emblem of roughness over the 


HALCYONIl DIES. 


13 


opposite eye, would have made him a trifle remark- 
able. 

After staring there dully for pretty nearly an 
hour, it began to dawn upon me that I had seen this 
man before somewhere, though under what circum- 
stances I could not for the life of me remember. 
That his outward person was that of the ordinary 
deckhand ashore, went for nothing. Besides, he had 
spoken overnight of “my boat.” That evidently 
meant yacht ; and might stand for anything from an 
eight-hundred ton steamer, downwards. 

The more I puzzled over his identity, the less hope 
I seemed to have of guessing it. 

At last he woke ; yawned, stretched, and sat up. 
Then he looked at me and whistled. Then : “ Slidey 
Methuen, by all that’s odd. Fancy stumbling across 
you here ! ” 

Still I couldn’t put a name to the man, and, after 
a bit of hesitation, told him so bluntly. 

He laughed, and said he didn’t wonder at it. It 
was only eight years since last we had met, but in that 
time he had been about the world a good deal, and, as 
he himself expressed it, “ got most of the old land- 
marks ground off his face, and new ones rubbed in.” 
He was Michael Cospatric. 

I had to take his word for it. There didn’t seem 
to be a trace left of the man I had known at Cam- 
bridge, either of manner, or outward form. However, 


14 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


Cospatric of C lie was, fast enough, and after the 

manner of Varsity men we started on to “ shop ” there 
and then, and had the old days over again in review. 

We had both been of the same year, and although 
in a small college that argues some knowledge of one 
another, we were by no means in the same set. In 
fact, up there, Cospatric had been rather an anomaly : 
a man in no clique, a man without a nickname, a 
man distinguished only by the halo of his exit. He 
came up, one of a bunch of fifty- two undergraduates, 
joined all the clubs, was tubbed, rowed four at the 
end of his first October term in a losing junior trial 
eight, and was promptly shelved. He was never in 
evidence anywhere, but was reported to be a sub- 
scriber of Rolandi’s, and to spend his time read- 
ing novels in foreign tongues. As he seldom kept 
either lectures or chapels, a chronic gating fostered 
this occupation. His second October he again navi- 
gated the Cam in a junior trial. He lugged with the 
arms incurably and swung like a corkscrew, but we 
had five trials on that term, and men were wanted to 
fill them. So he raved, and raced, and again helped 
his crew to lose, and then was shelved as hopeless. 
He was a man of no account. IN’ot three men, out of 
his own year, knew him by name. 

At the beginning of his second Easter term he 
began to distinguish himself. Of all places he started 
to do this at the Union — an institution few of us C 


HALCYONll DIES. 


15 


men belonged to. There was a debate upon some- 
thing connected with Education. An unknown per- 
son got up and savagely attacked existing methods as 
being useless, impracticable, and in the interests of 
the teacher and not of the taught. “ Of what use to 
society is a College fellow ? ” he asked, and-answering 
“ Of none except to reproduce his species,” backed up 
his case with such cleverness that a majority grew out 
of nothing. Johnians howled : Trinity men and Hall 
men cheered with delight: Non-Colls hissed and 
made interruptions : and as the ragged-gowned crowd 
trooped out, a universal cry went up of “ Who the 
d— 1 is he?” 

We undergraduates at C were not much moved 

by this exploit, because, as I have hinted, the Union 
was not in our line. We rowed, and danced, and 
drove tandem : never preached, except to election 
mobs. We quite agreed with Cospatric that Classics 
and Mathematics, and Natural Science as she is 
taught at Cambridge, are one and all of them useless 
burdens, not worth the gathering ; but we were not 
prepared to say with him that we hungered after the 
acquisition of French, German, Spanish, Norsk, and 
Italian, or eke Lingua Franca or Japanese. 

The higher authorities saw the matter in a differ- 
ent light. Master and fellows looked upon Mr. Cos- 
patric as a dangerous heretic — much in fact as Urban 
VIII and his cardinals regarded Galileo — and resolved 


16 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


to make him recant. The senior tutor was chosen as 
their instrument. He was an official with what were 
described as “little ways of his own.” He hauled 
Cospatric. Union speech and revolutionary senti- 
ments were not referred to. The delinquent was 
(amid a cacophony of “ Hems ”) accused, on the 
strength of coming up Chapel with surplice unbut- 
toned, of being inebriated within the walls of a sacred 
edifice. He was not allowed to speak a word in his 
own defence. He was gated for a week at eight, and 
coughed out of the room. 

An eminently steady man, and conscious of being 
at the moment in question sober as an archangel, the 
iron of the accusation and punishment entered into 
his soul. For gatings as a general thing he cared not 
one jot. He had lived his year and a half in an at- 
mosphere of them. Whether free or chained, he had 
always stayed in his rooms after hall, preferring the 
green-labelled books to any other evening companion- 
ship. 

But to this present confinement, a piece of obvi- 
ously rank injustice, he determined not to submit; 
and in consequence spent a dreary evening parading 
the streets, not arriving back till close upon twelve. 

He kept in college. The porter sent up his name. 
He was again hauled, and again, without being allowed 
to say a word in his own defence, gated for the re- 
mainder of the term, and given to understand that 


HALCYONII DIES. 


17 

he would be sent down for good if he cut a single 
gate. 

The sentence was barbarous. A call at the Lodge 
and a patient explanation to the Master would prob- 
ably have set matters right. But Cospatric was not 
the man such a course would occur to. Some long- 
slumbering demon rose within him, and he indulged 
heavily in College Audit in hall. Afterwards he came 
to my rooms, where there was a conclave of some sort 
going on, and made a statement. It was his first re- 
corded appearance in anyone’s quarters but his own ; 
and his first recorded look of excitement ; and conse- 
quently his words were listened to. He did not stay 
long. He told us in forcible language that as the 
College authorities had seen fit to take it out of him, 
he intended to do the like by them, and we might 
form ourselves into umpires of the proceedings. Then 
he departed : and next morning joined a knot of us 
who were gazing with admiration at the stone angels 
beside the clock who during the hours of darkness 
had been helmetted with obscene earthenware. No 
ladder in the College could reach that decorated statu- 
ary, and as the porter did not see fit to risk his neck 
over such a ghastly climb, decorated they stayed till 
midday, and our court teemed with ribald under- 
graduates. 

The succeeding morning there was another raree- 
show. The College skeleton — framework of a long- 


18 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


passed door, so tradition stated — had been by help of 
a screw-driver and patience imtombed from its dusty 
resting-place at the top of the Hall staircase. It had 
been dressed in some flashy Scotch tweeds well known 
as belonging to the junior tutor, and perched astride 
of the weathercock. Again the position was impreg- 
nable, and again the trophy drew delighted crowds till 
long past midday. 

And so, one puerile outrage succeeded another, 
scarcely a day passing without some new triumph of 
the kind to report. Cospatric leaped at one bound 
into a public character. Of course, every soul in the 
place knew that he was at the bottom of it all — the 
dons getting the news through the gyps — but no one 
in authority was smart enough to bring anything 
home to him. He even took to keeping lectures 
and chapels: which piece of pharisaism put, to our 
mind then, the flnishing touch of this comedy of 
revenge. 

It all seems a great piece of foolery when one looks 
back : but at the time we thought it high-minded and 
justifiable rebellion. We assembled in the court, and 
cheered after the Senior tutor had been three parts 
smothered in his bed and red-pepper squib dropped 
down the chimney; and on the morning after the 
Master’s laundry was raided, and the linen (belonging 
to both sexes) distributed amongst the crows’ nests in 
the avenue, I think special trains must have been run- 


IIALCYONII DIES. 


10 


ning into Cambridge, so thick was the throng of sight- 
seers. 

There is no doubt about it that Cospatric came to 
be a young man of much renown in those days. 

Had he been a popular person beforehand, far-see- 
ing friends would have advised him to retire on his 
laurels after, say, the first half-dozen exploits. But as 
it was, there was no one amongst the newly formed 
acquaintances sufficiently interested in the hero of the 
moment to forego his own personal anticipations of 
enjoyment. The man was egged on unthinkingly, al- 
though a moment’s thought must have pointed to a 
certain Deluge ahead. 

And that Deluge came ; as usual, from an unlooked- 
for quarter. 

Cospatric in all his sober senses was helping an 
overcome roysterer across the court late at night. The 
junior tutor arrived, and ordered Cospatric to his 
rooms. Cospatric went obediently, waited in the 
shadow of an archway, and returned to the overcome 
one. Enter once more the junior tutor : nothing said 
to the roysterer : Cospatric to pay an official call at 
twelve-thirty on the morrow. There is no use giving 
detail. They had a College meeting next day, and sent 
him down for an offence that was absolutely trivial ; and 
every soul in the College, the culprit included, saw the 
justice of the injustice. 

He came down the steps from the Combination 


20 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


room in triumph, and we chaired him round the court 
in a bath, some hundred and twenty men forming in 
procession behind, and singing an idiotic march-song 
from a current burlesque. Then we went to his 
rooms, and he sat on two tables, one above the other, 
with a tea-cosy on his head, and held an auction of 
his effects, which those of us who happened to possess 
any ready cash bought up at long figures. He had no 
plans for the future, so we stuck a false moustache on 
him, corked his eyebrows, and thus disguised kept 
him smuggled in our rooms for ten days, during 
which time Bacchus created Babel. And then we 
had him photographed in various attitudes, singly, and 
surrounded by groups of admirers, and then we went 
out with him to the station, saw him in a train for 
Liverpool Street, and— that’s all. He was never 
viewed or heard of again. His period of brilliance 
up there was very comet-like. 


III. 

VAGABOND. 

“ Hysterical madness ” was the definition Cos- 
patric clapped on to that culminating episode of his 
Cambridge life ; “ but,” he added with a chuckle, “ I 
did enjoy myself whilst the fun lasted. That’s just 
typical of the particular fool I am. Nature intended 
me for clown in a third-rate travelling circus. The 
father made up his mind I was to be a big thing in 
the lawyering way. The two clashed, and the present 
state of affairs is the result. If some far-seeing guar- 
dian could only have averaged matters, I might have 
turned out very differently. I’d have made a good 
courier, for instance, if such an animal had been in 
demand nowadays ; or a Continental drummer, if the 
commercial part of the work could have been left out ; 
or even a passable navy officer. As it is, I’m nothing ; 
I’m no mortal good to anybody : and I have a very 
tolerable time of it. Look, that’s my boat.” 

We had worked our way down past the intervening 
barriers of water- and wood, and were walking on the 


22 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


fjord shore. Eounding a bluff, we had suddenly 
opened out a small cutter of some six and twenty or 
thirty tons, riding to her anchor in the mouth of the 
river. One concluded that she was a yacht, as she was 
flush-decked and had a sky-light instead of a cargo- 
hatch amidships ; but her lines were a good deal of 
the dray-horse type, and as for smartness, she did not 
know the meaning of the word. I expect traces of 
this opinion showed in my face, for Cospatric saw fit 
to explain. 

“ I learnt my sailoring in an untidy school,” he 
said ; “ tramp steamers, coasting schooners, collier 
brigs, and timber barques, and those aren’t the sort of 
craft that rub neatness into a man. Our motto in the 
little drogher yonder is to keep her afloat with the 
least possible bother to ourselves. We never lie in 
swagger harbours to be looked at. There isn’t a 
burgee or a brass button on board. Strict Spartan 
utility is very much the motto of the ship’s company. 
Hence, for example, you find the decks brown and 
not white, and yet I can assure you that they are 
absolutely staunch. She scarcely leaks a tear any- 
where ; and although she’s beamy, and heavy -bowed, 
and deep, she isn’t such a sluggard either, especially 
when it’s blowing. In fact, dirty weather’s our strong 
point with that ugly duckling of a cutter. She’d sail 
most of your dandy craft slick under water if it came 
on really bad. And we got* it a week ago by the 


VAGABOND. 


23 


Dogger here, and last year just to s’uthard of the 
Bay, as foul as I’ve ever seen it anywhere.” 

“ Here’s our boat,” I cut in. “ My headquarters 
are in that house at the other side of the river. I’ll 
drop you at your craft as we cross.” 

“Not a bit of it, man. You must come and see 
me now we are here, and besides ” — here he chuckled, 
“perhaps the belly of the old cutter isn’t quite so 
uncouth as her hide. You can send IJlus on with the 
impedimenta if he wants to report himself.” 

So we did that: dropped down with the ebb, 
stepped over the rail, bidding Ulus go his ways with 
boat, and news, and trophies. As our shoes clattered 
on the grimy deck-planks, a close-cropped head 
bobbed up through the forehatch, bowed, and retired. 

“ That’s Celestin,” said Cospatric, “ my profes- 
sional crew. He’s principally cook ; and at times he’s 
a very good cook, as you may learn. There’s another 
man below; my mate; part-owner with me. We’re a 
queerly-assorted couple, but we’ve rubbed on very well 
together this past eighteen months.” 

He led the way down the ladder, and I followed. 
The inside of the cutter was certainly “ not so un- 
couth as her hide.” Indeed, seldom have I seen a 
cosier cabin, and I have been into a good many of one 
sort and another. The items of furniture and fitting 
evidently had been picked up from over a very wide 

area, but they had been selected with taste and har- 
3 


24 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


monised thoroughly. The eJBfect aimed at was comely 
comfort; and that effect had been thoroughly gained. 

One thing only seemed out of balance with the 
whole. The forecastle door was a narrow sliding 
panel well over to port. All the starboard side of the 
bulk-head was filled by a piano, which was bevelled 
off at its lower right-hand corner so as to fit against 
the sheathing. 

Cospatric followed my glance. “ Yes, it’s an up- 
right ‘ grand ; ’ and German ; specially made. It is 
rather bulky for the size of the ship, but you see we’re 
a bit musical here. Haigh plays. By the way, you 
haven’t seen Haigh yet.” 

He called out, and his mate came down the narrow 
gangway from the after-cabin. He was a tall, lean, 
smooth-faced man, with moist black hair that, was 
partly sleek and shining, partly bristling out in strag- 
gling whisps. His face was dewy, and his eyes per- 
petually blinking. Cospatric asked him to play some- 
thing. He peered at me for a moment or two, as 
though taking my measure, and then went to the 
piano and gave vent to a particularly low comic 
song. 

“Forecastle tastes,” thought I: “that upright 
grand’s a wasted instrument.” 

Aloud I expressed conventional thanks. Haigh 
had another blink or two in my direction, and then 
broke into Gounod’s “ Chantez toujours,” singing it 


VAGABOxND. 


25 


very passably. He hadn’t much voice, but he knew 
how to sing. 

“ Like that ? ” inquired Cospatric. 

“ Remarkably,” said I. 

“ Better than the other ? ” 

“ A hundred per cent.” 

“Then keep the same stop out, Haigh, and go 
ahead.” 

And Haigh turned to the piano and rattled off 
half-a-dozen other foolish ballads. Then he said he 
was tired, and straggled out on a sofa and blinked at 
the ceiling, whilst Cospatric and I wallowed in Cam- 
bridge shop again. It’s extraordinary how men do 
like to talk over the follies of those old times. And 
afterwards Celestin indulged us in dinner, a regular 
epicurean feast washed down with decent wine, a 
thing worth much fine gold after a month and a half 
in Norway. 

“You do know how to take care of yourself 
on this craft,” I observed to Cospatric that even- 
ing. 

“We don’t live like this at sea, you know. It’s 
regular ship’s fare with us then. And so you see we 
appreciate little bouts of gourmandise when we get 
into port. Personally, I’ve got that principle some- 
what ingrained. In fact, I’ve rubbed along that way 
ever since I got adrift from England and respectabil- 
ity. The system has its drawbacks, but from my point 


26 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


of view it makes life worth living. I’ve had ronghish 
spells between whiles, hut I’m so peculiarly consti- 
tuted that a short bright spot of comfort makes me 
forget the disagreeables that have gone before, and 
wipes the slate clean for a fresh start.” 

During the days that followed, when not shooting 
or fishing, I was generally on that ugly little cutter. 
Two things drew me : firstly (I’m sorry to own) the 
fare, which was so vastly superior to my own ; and sec- 
ondly, yarns. There was another attraction later, but 
I did not know of it then. 

Those yarns of Cospatric’s were tales one would 
not forget. He told of things which are not written 
down in books. He had travelled because he couldn’t 
help it, and consequently had seen and done things 
that more well-to-do travellers are debarred from. He 
had housed amongst the most iniquitous places on 
God’s earth, from Callao to Port Said, he had wan- 
dered from Yokohama to Mandalay, he had been 
stoker on a Shaw-Savile boat, he had served as mate 
on a Genovese timber barque. 

He told of all these matters with an open con- 
tempt in which Haigh (when he did not happen to 
be dozing) readily joined him. The pair of them had 
both knocked about the world largely. But it ^vas not 
because they liked it. It was the Fates that had or- 
dained their first cycle of vagabondage. This new 
mode of living in a shifting house— to wit, the ugly 


VAGABOND. 


27 


cutter — was taken up because sea-roaming had been 
so thoroughly ingrained into their natures that as yet 
neither of them had found a spot he cared to settle 
down in permanently. 

The rolling stone aphorism had been pretty accu- 
rately fulfilled in Cospatric’s case. He had gathered 
during the greater part of his nomadic life little moss 
which he could convert into a bank-note equivalent. 
Another man might have utilized some of the ma- 
terial : he lacked the skill to set it in vendible form. 
With one solitary exception, his gains during those 
vagrant years may be summed up under two heads. 
He had gathered a knowledge of certain orders of his 
species that was both extensive and peculiar ; and he 
had amassed a collection of tattooings that was unique 
for a European. The former he cared not one jot 
about, displaying his intimate acquaintance with the 
shadier side of the world’s peoples with apologies ; but 
in the latter he took an almost childish pride. They 
were not, he pointed out, the rude frescoings of the 
British mariner who outlines a diagrammatic female 
with a sail needle, tints her with gunpowder, and 
labels her with the name of his current lady-love to 
prevent mistakes. Such crude efforts have their good 
points : for instance, they promote constancy. But 
they are hideously inartistic, and moreover, to a man 
of ordinarily fickle nature, are apt to bring in very 
damning evidence at the most inopportune moments. 


28 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


Whereas (still according to Cospatric) the higher 
types of these human frescoes spell Art with a very 
big A, and form a portable picture gallery which no 
spasmodic poverty can ever induce one to pawn or 
otherwise part with. 

The adaptability of the medium for artistic design 
is a matter open to argument. However, Cospatric 
bore upon his person better specimens than I have 
ever seen before. He had sat to none but the most 
noted artists of Burmah and Japan, and the outcome 
of their brushes — or rather, needles, as I suppose it 
should be termed — was in places more than remark- 
able. Buddhas, nautch-girls, sacred white elephants, 
serial fairy stories, and the rest were all worth study- 
ing ; but I think the chefs (T oeuvre of the two artistic 
centres were a peacock and a multi-coloured dragon. 
The bird stood before a temple (on the mid fore-arm) 
serenely conscious of its own perfection. Every 
feather on its body was true to life; every spot on 
its tail a microscopic wonder. The beast (or the 
creeping thing, if you so prefer to name it) twined 
round one of his lower limbs, leaving the dent of its 
claws in the flesh, and resting its squat outstretched 
head on the centre of the knee-cap. And so cun- 
ningly was the creature perched (as its owner glee- 
fully pointed out) that the least movement of his cru- 
ral muscles set the jagged backbone a-quivering, and 
the slobbering lips to mumble and mow. Cospatric 


VAGABOND. 


29 


said that dragon was a most finished piece of work- 
manship, and worth all he had cost. 

“ That’s the worst of really good tattooing,” he ex- 
plained, k propos of this beast. “ It’s so infernally ex- 
pensive to get the best men. You’ve no idea how 
they are run after. But luckily they’ve a soft place 
for a real connoisseur, even though he comes from the 
West. And besides, I’ve got such a grand skin. . . .” 

Music and dinners absorbed his spare cash when 
such were available, but out in Burmah and Japan 
neither were to his taste, and consequently all ready 
funds were wont to be sunk in corporeal decoration. 

Whether the outlay seems judicious, I will not say. 
It was not my hide that these uncanny limners oper- 
ated upon. 

Another of Cospatric’s tastes was one I could 
chime in with more readily. He did not flaunt it, by 
any means. On the contrary, he kept the thing hid- 
den, and I stumbled across it only by accident. More- 
over, it was a stroke of luck for me that I did so, as 
my want of knowledge had been a bar to any intimacy ; 
whereas once in his confidence upon this point we got 
on together swimmingly, and I had a good time. 

It was an unpremeditated return to the yacht late 
at night with news of bear that helped the discovery. 
Ulus had brought the tidings just as I was going to 
bed that his ^yom-ship was expected to call at a neigh- 
bouring farm to polish off the remains of a sheep ; and 


30 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


as bear was the only sort of local game which Cos- 
patric considered worth powder and ball, I thought 
I’d knock him up for the chance of a shot. So I went 
out, and tramped down to the shore opposite to where 
the ugly cutter was riding. But I did not hail. I 
stood there and listened — listened with some wonder 
and some delight — I believe I gaped. The strings of 
the “ upright grand ” were in motion, but they were 
giving vent to neither ballad-tune nor comic jig. And 
chiming in with them were the notes of a violin played 
tunefully, accurately, boldly. That last, I knew must 
be Cospatric’s. I had not seen the instrument here, 
as yet, but I remembered he was supposed to be rather 
good on it up at Cambridge. 

After a bit, I pulled myself together and hailed. 
The music ceased abruptly. Cospatric’s head ap- 
peared through the hatch, and Cospatric’s voice in- 
quired with a good deal of impatience what I wanted. 

I told him about the bear, and then added a few 
words in praise of the music. “ Whyever didn’t you 
let me hear your concert before?” I asked. “Did 
you think it was a case of pearls and pigs ? ” 

“ That’s exactly the reason ! I didn’t know you 
cared for anything more advanced than those ballad 
affairs. However, if that’s a wrong idea, I’m very 
glad. We’ll have some tunes together after this, and 
perhaps Haigh and I may knock out an item or two 
that’s fresh to you. But for the present, as you sug- 


VAGABOND. 


31 


gest — hjorn. I’ll be with you on the sand there in 
nine seconds.” 

As for the bear, of course he didn’t turn up, and 
we three and Se spent a particularly cold night in the 
open, with absolutely nothing to show for it. In this 
there was nothing surprising. It was quite in the 
ordinary way of business. Only Cospatric, who is at 
heart no sportsman, murmured “ Small potatoes.” 

It was not till a couple of days afterwards that we 
got on the subject of music again. AVe came at it 
this way : the cutter was going to work south and 
west again, and it was proposed that I should join 
her. “ Don’t go down in one of those beastly coast- 
ing steamers,” said Cospatric. “ They’ll give you five 
sorts of cheese for breakfast, and poison you at all 
other meals. You’ll live in an atmosphere of dried 
fish and engine-room oil, and you’ll be driven half 
mad by children who squall, and other children who 
rattle the saloon domino-box all through the watches. 
You’d much better come with me. I’ll drop you at a 
steamer’s port in the Channel, somewhere, some time. 
You aren’t in a hurry. Come, and hear Haigh play 
again.” 

I said I preferred duets. 

“ All right, you shall hear the humble combined 
effort,” said he ; and then, after a good deal of pump- 
ing, I got more out of him as to whence sprang his 
powers. 


32 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ The thing’s simple enough,” he said. “ I was 
fond of fiddling, and I stuck to it. I used to scrape 
at Cambridge, if you remember, as probably you don’t, 
and had some goodish lessons there. Afterwards 
when I got on the wander and took to pawning things, 
my spare shirt went frequently, but I always managed 
to stick to that little black box somehow. And I 
played on forecastle heads and on beaches, and in 
sailors’ lodgings ashore : and occasionally I got a 
week or so’s lessons from a good man ashore : and 
then I heard concerts and good orchestras all up and 
down. And so you see I picked it up that way. . . . 
No, I don’t play from paper much, but Haigh’s a bit 
of a kindred spirit, and between us we evolve things. 
And now let’s talk of something else — say, the ptar- 
migan prospects for next year : you’ll be good on that.” 

Now I am fond of music — ordinary music, that is 
— and I can appreciate a good song or well-performed 
operas such as Carmen and the Yeomen of the Guards 
or even a classical concert if it is not too long. In 
fact, I had always plumed myself on being what one 
calls “very tolerably musical.” But these two were 
streets in advance of such mediocrity. To begin with, 
they had a strong contempt for most vocal efforts, 
considering it as merely a sop for the outside public. 
Orchestral music was their formula for the highest 
form of the art, and orchestral music they accord- 


VAGABOND. 


33 


ingly played, that queer creature Haigh blinking over 
the upright grand, and Cospatric behind him bring- 
ing sounds out of his violin such as I never heard 
amateur produce before, with a combined result that 
was always marvellous, and sometimes verged upon 
that abstract goal, perfection. 

They seldom had a screed of notes before them. 
Either they knew the stuff by heart, or, what seemed 
more likely, there was some sympathetic link between 
them w^hich kept both instruments unerringly to tlie 
theme. I could not find how it was done: I could 
only acknowledge the results. 

It was by no means always within my powers to 
appreciate their work.. Sometimes the charm of what 
they played was too esoteric for my understanding. 
The sounds were unmeaning to me : not infrequently 
they were absolutely discordant. But I had confi- 
dence enough in the superiority of their intellects 
over mine not to condemn, still less to scoff. At these 
times I held my tongue. Genius is not improved by 
irreverent criticism. 

I spoke with Cospatric one day about keeping all 
these creative gifts to himself. Why did he not share 
them wdth the outside world? 

He gave a bit of a shudder. “ Don’t suggest such 
an idea,” he said. “ It’s my one sensitive place. All 
the rest have been hammered dull in my roamings. 
I must keep that as it is.” 


34 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


And then at another time : “ You know I can’t 
conceive of a sensitive man, be he musician or painter, 
or even writer of romance, who would put out his 
very best for an indiscriminate public to browse 
upon or trample over. He knows and feels the thing 
he has created to be a beautiful thing and an original 
thing, and he has been at much pains to arrive at it, 
although there were special items in his own constitu- 
tion which helped him. And he can be sure that 
there are a large percentage of pigs in the public by 
whom his pearl will not be appreciated. Its shape 
and its colour are new to them ; and not having come 
within the range of their limited vision before, tiiere- 
fore its building must be altogether wrong. But that 
is not the worst. Spoken babblings one might be 
deaf to ; written stuff is sure to be cut out by a friend 
and posted for you to enjoy with your morning’s cof- 
fee. Those infernal newspapers get hold of the thing 
you have made, and their verdict depends upon the 
individual taste of some anonymous ‘ we.’ He may not 
like your sardines, and accordingly, though it does 
not therefore follow that sardines are unfit for human 
food, he proceeds to slate sardines with all his tricks 
of satire and argument, and to cover the maker and 
even the eater of sardines with ridicule.” 

He stopped then, and I asked if he had been 
catching it somewhere. 

He laughed. “ Ho, I’ve never had my name once 


VAGABOND. 


35 


in a paper that I know of ; not even under the head- 
ing of Police Intelligence. I’m singularly uneager for 
fame. I’m only talking from what I’ve seen occa- 
sionally. That’s been warning enough for me. It 
must sour a man to be jeered at in that sort of way, 
and thanks, I prefer not to be soured. I’ve no super- 
fluous sweetness.” 

All this may seem rather absurd, but I give it just 
to show what manner of a man Cospatric is when you 
come to know him intimately. No one from meet- 
ing him casually would guess that he had failings of 
this sort. In fact, you would take him for a very 
tough subject indeed, inured to hardship in the past, 
and liking hardship in the present for its own sake. 
As an instance : Instead of taking his ugly cutter 
down coast by the inner passages, he must needs get 
out into the open water, which is at this time of year 
exceptionally unquiet, from sheer delight at getting 
kicked about. Indeed, when we picked up an equi- 
noctial gale half-way across, and had our hands ex- 
ceedingly full to keep the boat afloat, the man fairly 
revelled in the scene and the work ; and what’s more, 
that sleepy, straggling person Haigh did too. It 
wasn’t in my line at all. I’ve not the smallest ob- 
jection to getting cold and wet when there is a big 
elk or a good bag of grouse in question : that’s dilfer- 
ent. But when one is perpetually half-drowned and 


36 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


frozen in a little tub of a sailing craft, I fail to see 
where the fun comes in. Still, in spite of the hard, 
rough time, I should have been sorry to have missed 
that hammering across the North Sea and the trip 
down-Channel to queer old St. Malo. There was one 
strong redeeming feature — Cospatric’s accounts of his 
hunting after the Raymond Lully’s inscription. He 
and I took one watch between us, and to the accom- 
paniment of northern gale — northern spindrift — he 
yarned about a chase under southern skies for an ob- 
ject which I believe to be an absolutely unique one. 
He was one of the men who were scouring after that 
Recipe for making Diamonds lost to this world since 
the death of its original finder in 1315. 


[Follows^ an account of the contention for the blessed Raymond Lully'^s 
Recipe^ as given from Michael Cospatrids own lips.'] 

IV. 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 

. . . Genoa no doubt has its drawbacks. Inces- 
sant rain, perennial stink and big prices can go to 
make up a heaven for few people. But for taking 
the taste of really bitter hard times out of one’s 
mouth, the place has its good points. 

I’d been catching it bad just before. I’d got on 
my beam-ends in Oporto, and couldn’t atford to be 
fastidious about a berth. Consequently, I’d found 
myself in a rotton old Genovese tramp barque that 
most of the crew had run from because they thought 
she’d founder next time she put to sea. Of course 
the owners didn’t want to see her again, and the Skip- 
per had been doing his best to play into their hands 
all the way down from the Baltic. His Mate had 
contrived to baulk his driving the previous half of 
the trip, but got sick of the job and cleared when he 
found the chance. It was into the Mate’s shoes that 
I stepped ; and having no interest in the insur- 
ance policy, and placing a certain value on my own 


38 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


hide, I continued at the same game. We’d a beautiful 
chance four days out. We picked up a sou’easter off 
St. Vincent, and the putty began to tumble out and 
she got more of a basket than ever. We’d only ten of 
a crew all told, and there wasn’t a man of them that 
had had a whole watch below since we got our clear- 
ance. Fore t’gallant mast had gone like a carrot at 
the cap, and mizzen-mast head was so sprung that 
she wouldn’t bear the spanker. She was squattering 
along under the two lower topsails only, and we 
amused ourselves by betting when they’d split. 

She was so infernally full of water that she steered 
like a haystack ; and as anyone in the waist got half- 
drowned every minute, long spells at the pumps 
weren’t popular. ^ 

We couldn’t make our Tasting a bit, and the Old 
Man kept saying that we should never get through 
the Straits. That was by way of preparation, but I 
understood what he was up to, and said nothing. 

At last he put it to me squarely. ’Twasn’t good 
enough going on like this. The barque would have 
to be “ Lost at Sea ” — luckily the boat down yonder 
amidships was a thumping big one. 

I said open-boat cruising in a December Atlantic 
wasn’t an amusement I hankered after, and then asked 
him bluntly how much he was going to clear out of 
the job. 

He said “ Nothing ” ; called a large squad of saints 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 


39 


to witness that the loss of his vessel would ruin him ; 
and then, changing tack, promised that I should make 
a good thing out of it. 

But when I tried to pin him, it was no go. He 
wouldn’t make me out a check ; he wouldn’t put pen 
to paper in any way; he wouldn’t even pledge his 
owners for a figure : and I damned him for a slippery 
^ Maccaroni, and swore I’d drive his old tramp in be- 
tween Genoa pierheads just to square up his meanness. 
He daren’t knife me, because the crew would have 
understood why, and raised a wasp’s nest ; and he had 
to play the sailor, because I promised him if he piled 
her up anywhere I’d go to the nearest Italian consul 
and report him ; but I’ll give the man credit for keep- 
ing me in blacker Hades during the rest of that crawl 
across than I ever knew existed before. However, he 
got settled with when once we were snugly into 
harbour, and was a long fortnight in hospital repair- 
ing damages. That’s where an Englishman scores. 
Whip away the coUello from the back of his belt, get 
him to put up his hands, steer clear of his feet, and 
you have a southerner on toast. 

After living like a brute — and acting, of course, so 
as not to spoil the completeness of the part — for all 
that time, I naturally set to doing what the sailor man 
always does under the circumstances. I got ashore, 
and started washing the taste out of my mouth. 
Every man does this according to his own lights, and 
4 


40 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


perhaps mine were a trifle out of the general groove. 
Lodging I was not fastidious about, neither did I long 
for drink, nor clothes, nor women. So I put up at a 
bit of an up-stairs albergo in the Via S. Siro where one 
who knows the ropes can get a decent room for a 
and spent my time and money in having daily a real 
good dinner, and hearing some tip-top music. And 
by Jove I did enjoy myself. It seemed almost worth 
going through the bad spell, just for the sake of the 
contrast. 

But more’s the pity my pay had been small, and it 
fractionised rapidly. The spree could only be a short 
one. 

However, I wasn’t going to run matters too fine 
this time, and get cornered again as had been my fate 
at Oporto, so I loafed amongst the shipping ofiices 
during my mornings, and had the good luck to stum- 
ble into a berth on one of the American liners. It 
was only as Third Mate, to be sure ; but then she was 
a big ship, and I, professionally speaking, was a small 
man. I hadn’t exactly been schooled for the sea, you 
know. So you can guess I was feeling pretty comfort- 
able over it. 

It’s just spells like those which prove to a man 
how thoroughly life is worth living. 

The end of my tether was not long in coming. A 
man, when his shore riotings are thoroughly system- 
atic, as mine were, can calculate his days of revelry to 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 


41 


a nicety. I had arrived at my last two twenty-lire 
notes. I was going to finish up with a ten-lire din- 
ner, then spend four lire for entrance and a seat at 
the Carlo Felice to hear “ Cavalleria Rusticana,” leav- 
ing part of six lire for bed, morning coffee and other 
sundries, besides twenty odd to carry on the war with 
before I got my advance on the steamer. Being 
stone-broke when you go on board doesn’t matter if 
you ship forward ; but aft, to start with bare pockets 
may get you a bad name. 

I had maundered out to the Oampo Santo that 
last day, and on the road back, just after passing 
through the walls, an Englishman who had lost him- 
self asked the way to the market-place. He was a 
little bit of a self-important chap with a gruff, coarse 
voice, and Schoolmaster written in large letters all 
over him. He knew no word of Italian, and was evi- 
dently feeling lonely to a degree — and so, as I had no 
objection to chatting with a countryman, we paced off 
together, and dropped into conversation. He was 
“doing” North Italy with a circular ticket, and as he 
had read it all up with much thoroughness before- 
hand, he was very naturally much disappointed with 
the reality. “S. Mark’s was too small, and Venice 
was most unhealthy. The sanitation of that part over 
the Rialto Bridge, where the butchers’ shops were, 
was a disgrace to the country. The Duomo at Milan 
was squat, ugly, overrated, and the hotel charges in 


42 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


that city were most exorbitant. Turin might be a 
good place for shipping, but he had not gone there 
for that purpose. And Genoa again was unsanitary.” 
In fact, he was the stereotyped travelling Briton, so 
full of melancholy discontent, and disappointment, 
that one wondered why he did not commit suicide, or 
go home. And as, add to this, he laid down the law 
with the true schoolmaster’s dogmaticalness on every 
conceivable subject that cropped up, from Music to 
Tattooing, you can guess that he had in him the mak- 
ings of a very objectionable beast indeed. However, 
he was so appallingly ignorant of all the matters he 
plunged amongst as to "be correspondingly amusing, 
and for that reason alone I didn’t give him the go-by 
at once. 

We were passing a bookseller’s shop, where he 
caught sight of a mangy leather-bound MS. in the 
window, and said he’d ask the price. He didn’t know 
in the least what it was about, and didn’t seem to 
care ; but saying that he would make a good profit 
out of it at Quaritch’s, went into the shop. I didn’t 
offer an opinion about his last statement, but just fol- 
lowed. He was demanding “ How much? ” 

“ Vous parlez fran9ais, M’sieur?” asked the book- 
seller. 

“ Hong, mais this gentleman here parlez Italiano 
~I say, will you translate for me? Ask the fellow 
what he’ll sell this for.” 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 


43 


I did, and the bookseller started a long yarn about 
the MS. having come out of the Marchese di Some- 
body-or-other’s library, where it had lain undisturbed 
for several thousand years. “ Signor,” said he, “ the 
book is of inestimable value, and I cannot part with it 
for less than thirty lire.” 

I repeated the gist of this to my man — Weems was 
his name, by the way ; of New, Oxford, so he said — 
and told him he could get the thing for about twelve 
lire, if he cared about it. And, to cut the yarn short, 
he did buy it for twelve-fifty, and left the shop feeling 
that he had been swindled out of at least half-a- 
crown. 

“ What’s your purchase about?” I asked, when we 
were in the street again. 

He hadn’t looked: didn’t see that it mattered 
much : the stuff was old, and that was the main thing. 
All these old MSS. were valuable, and Quaritch was 
sure to buy it at a good price. 

I still had my doubts about that last, but didn’t 
argue. It was his affair, not mine. 

Finally, he suggested dining together, and (as he 
had been in Genoa exactly twelve hours) laid down 
the law without the smallest hesitation as to which 
was the best place to go to, and what was best to have. 
By that time I had got about sick of his society, and 
said bluntly that, as I knew Genoa thoroughly, I was 
not going anywhere in the Galleria Mazzini, as he sug- 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


U 

gested, but to somewhere in another direction ; and, 
further, that as his idea of a menu and mine didn’t 
appear to coincide in any one item, we had better bid 
one another good afternoon. But the horroi: of lone- 
liness loomed near him again, and for one of the few 
times in his life he changed front without argument. 
He would grant upon second thoughts that I must 
know best about such a matter, and would take it as 
a great favour if he might place himself under my 
guidance. After which, of course, I could not say 
anything except that I should be proud to act as his 
cicerone. 

We had our meal — which w^as to be my last good 
one for many a long day to come — and a beauty it 
was. Even my North of England Grammar-School 
master could not but admit the excellence, although 
he grumbled at the price. Afterwards, we went 
through into the caffe^ and I offered him a good cigar, 
saying that if he had been undergoing a course of the 
local vegetable, he would appreciate it. However, the 
creature didn’t smoke; and as he also didn’t drink 
black coffee, and as I did both, he took occasion to 
point out to me at some length that I w^as deliberately 
crumpling up my constitution. To turn the conver- 
sation, I suggested overhauling his recent purchase. 
He seemed sorry to cut short his sermon, but finding 
that I was paying no attention, asked what the book 


was. 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 


45 


“ It’s a diary,” said I, “ written in Spanish, or to 
be more accurate, Catalan ; and,” I added rather ma- 
liciously, “ I’m afraid you won’t get much of a for- 
tune out of Quaritch for it, as there seems to be noth- 
ing here except the merest tittle-tattle.” 

His face lengthened for a moment at the idea, but 
the old cock-sure manner came back again, and he 
pooh-poohed my valuation with lofty superiority. 

“ I presume you are not an expert in such matters 
as these — er — Mr. Cospatric ? No, of course not ; it 
couldn’t be expected. But let me assure you that I 
did not make this outlay with my eyes shut. Trust 
me for knowing what I was about.” He turned over 
some dozen of the yellow pages, looking at them curi- 
ously. “ That y there standing by itself means ‘ and.’ 
H’m, yes. The thing’s clear enough when one looks 
into it. I don’t profess to translate this old MS. at 
sight. You see the — ar — the writing’s crabbed. And 
my time is too much occupied to study it carefully. 
No, I shall just sell the thing to the man I mentioned 
as it stands. To return to what I was telling you 
about the use of tobacco, though. Whether you con- 
sider the matter from a scientific or merely from a 
rational point of view — ” and away he steamed again, 
whilst I conned over the tangled quill-work. 

My inattention was purposely obvious. I had got 
thoroughly sick of the man, and wanted to dri^e him 
away. But he had only his own society to fall back 


46 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


upon, and he had evidently the good taste to object 
strongly to that. And so he preached on. 

There was only one other person at our end of the 
cafe^ a dark, good-looking man with blue spectacles, 
who sat at an adjoining table with an Eco Italia 
before him, sipping cognac and sugar. But wdien 
Weems tried to drag him into conversation, the curse 
of the Tower of Babel applied the cldture^ and, “ Ig- 
norant lot, these Italians,” said the schoolmaster, go- 
ing on to show with many statistics and arguments 
that English, being founded on Dead Languages, was 
irrevocably destined by the Fates to become the Uni- 
versal Tongue of all terrestrial peoples. 

I looked at the clock. Half-an-hour yet before 
the doors of the Carlo Felice opened. The steep 
street outside was wet and miserable. I went back to 
turning over the old book. The pages were a queer 
medley, superbly uninteresting most of them, and 
tedious to spell out. There were the usual Spanish 
flourishes of lettering and expression, and when one 
had winnowed away all this chaff, it needed a great 
deal of hunger to make one appreciate the grain. In 
fact, I was on the point of closing the old scribble 
book through sheer weariness, when my eye lit on 
something which, as I read it further, made me fairly 
sweat. 

Weems droned on with his sermon, and I chucked 
in question and retort from time to time, just to keep 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 47 

him at it. I was wanting to gain time for a little 
argument of my own. It was a case of Should I keep 
what I had found to myself, or should I share it with 
Weems? Common sense said, “Don’t be a fool. If 
Providence has chucked a good thing in your way, 
stick it in your own pocket. That self-sufficient 
idiot will be none the wiser.” But the plague one 
calls Honour kept shoving in all manner of objec- 
tions. By Jove, how a rational- minded Cad would 
have scored there ! 

In the long-run. Honour, confound it, got a bit of 
a balancer which helped it to win. I’d a light purse : 
Weems seemed better off : he must supply the trifle of 
shot necessary for the pair of us; and together we 
should split the proceeds. Yes, that would be the 
idea. And besides, on second thoughts, there’d be 
lashings and lavings of plunder for both. No need 
for a bit of sharp practice on my part, after all. So 
up I spoke : 

“ See here. Signor, you’ve had the carpet for 
long enough, so give me a turn. This twaddling old 
screed which you were going to sell without ever 
skimming it through, holds what means nothing 
more or less than a thumping neat fortune for each 
of us. You’ve heard of Raymond Lully? No? 
Well, he was an old swell who flourished in the 
twelve hundreds, and who was by trade Rake, Philos- 
opher, Quack, Fanatic, Organiser and Martyr. He 


48 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


hailed from Mallorca — or Majorca, as you English 
persist in calling it — and he wrote books on Apolo- 
getic Theology, Dogmatic Divinity, and Practical 
Alchemy. Also he penned this diary, which has evi- 
dently been kept j^retty snug so far, and thanks to its 
general dreary tone, no one has read the memoran- 
dum on page the last but one.” 

“ Let me see,” interrupted Weems, stretching out 
his hand for the volume. . 

“ It’s of liO use to you, as you can’t read Spanish. 
However, I’ll tell you what’s here ; only let me gently 
remind you first that if it hadn’t been for my know- 
ing the language and conning some of this stuff 
through, the book would have passed out of your 
hands without your ever having learnt a word about 
it. Shall I go on now ? It’s a bit important.” 

“ Yes, we are practically alone here. That person 
with the blue spectacles speaks no English, and there 
is no one else within ear-shot. But you are slightly 
in error about my ignorance of Spanish, Mr. Cos- 
patric ! ” 

“ Yes, yes ; you know ‘ y ’ means ‘ and,’ don’t you, 
and that si stands for ‘ yes,’ and all the rest ? But 
don’t let’s bother about that now. Jiist marvel at 
this wonderful find. If the old gentleman had only 
written ‘ R. Lully, His Book,’ on the title page or at 
the conclusion, some bibliophile would have picked 
the thing up for a certainty, and read it with the 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 


49 


view of finding what I have found, and part of the 
world’s history would be different. But as it is, 
Lully happily omitted his signature, and in conse- 
quence the memorandum of where the Recipe could 
be found has never been read since the day it w'as 
written.” 

“ But,” broke in Weems, “what is this all about? 
I can’t understand what you are driving at, except 
that the book is a diary of Raymond Lully’s, whose 
name of course I recollect clearly enough now.” 

“ My dear Sir, whilst this old quack was trafficking 
with alchemy, and trying to discover the elixir vital, 
or the philosopher’s stone, or some other myth like 
that, he accidentally found out a method whereby com- 
mon wood charcoal may be crystallised.” 

“What!” gasped the schoolmaster, “made into 
diamonds! Great heavens, how was it done? Tell 
me quick.” 

“ He doesn’t give it here. This diary was evi- 
dently a private one which he carried about with him, 
and it was liable to be destroyed. So he wrote up 
the Recipe in a quiet place where no one would stum- 
ble on it, and where, as he remarks, he could send his 
heir to if he thought fit to do such a thing. But still, 
I don’t think that there is much fear of the secret 
having been given away. In the first place, we should 
undoubtedly hear of it if any one was manufacturing 
real diamonds for the market, as the diamond mines 


50 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


of the world are all known, and their output most 
strictly regulated. And in the second place, he had a 
strong reason of his own for not divulging the for- 
mula. Listen, and I’ll read. ‘ If,’ he says, ‘ diamonds 
were made common and cheap so that the lower orders 
of people might obtain them, I can conceive that 
much dissension w'ould arise. For the nobles finding 
their stored gems to have become in a sudden of no 
richness, would be deeply embittered thereby — they 
and their woman-kind. And the common folk being 
able to flaunt jewels equal to those of their betters 
would wax arrogant and dissatisfied ; and though 
being in reality no wit better off than before, would 
deem themselves the inferiors of none, and the supe- 
riors to most ; in support of which vain dreams, they 
would strive to their own sore detriment. For as in 
the beginning the sons of Adam were equal, and as of 
their descendants some rose to be of ruling classes 
through mental and physical fitness, so if all men were 
to be levelled again to-day, to-morrow they would be 
uneven once more, and the next day more uneven, 
the weak getting trampled under foot, and the strong 
fighting a red path upward with their ruthless sword.’ ” 
“ I need hardly inform you,” interrupted Weems, 
“ that those crude ideas of Political Economy are not 
w^hat we modern thinkers accept. Even John Stuart 
— but I will tell you about that afterwards. Please let 
me hear how the diamonds are made. Never mind 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 51 

about the other twaddle. It pains one to listen 
to it.” 

“ As I told you, the actual Recipe is not in the 
diary here. Lully wrote it out, so he says, in imper- 
ishable form, in a place where he conceived it would 
pass down through the centuries absolutely undis- 
turbed. I am not quite so confident about that as he 
is ; as I know the inquisitiveness of the present gener- 
ation better than he could imagine it. But to cut the 
story short, he found a way into one of the Talayots 
of Minorca, carved his secret upon the plaster of the 
interior, hid the entrance again, and came away. He 
says that the Talayot was believed by the Minorcans 
to be solid throughout, and adds that his only confi- 
dant, the priest who helped him to gain the internal 
chamber, died of a fever two days afterwards. Then 
he mentions the name of the spot — Talaiti de Talt, 
near Mercadal — and says if you dig a man’s length 
down in the middle of the side facing seaward, you’ll 
come across the entrance- passage. Oddly enough, I’ve 
been at Mercadal myself, when a brig I was on was 
weather bound in Port Mahon, and though I don’t 
recollect this Talaiti de Talt, it’s very probable I saw 
it, as we overhauled all the Talayots in the neighbour- 
hood.” 

“ By the way, what is a Talayot ? I’m — ar — sorry 
to confess ignorance — ” 

That last made me grin, which he saw, and didn’t 


52 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


like a bit. However, I pulled my face together again, 
and explained. “ ‘ Talayot ’ is a generic term for the 
groups of prehistoric remains which lie all over the 
island. There are monoliths, short underground pas- 
sages, duolithic altars, and rude pyramids. Talaiti de 
Talt is evidently one of these last.” 

“Old?” 

“ Tolerably. The race of men who put fliem up 
were extinct before the Egyptian pyramid-builders 
came upon the scene.” 

“ I don’t quite see how that can be. You must 
understand, Mr. Cospatric — ” 

“ Oh, what does it matter, man ? If it pleases you 
I’ll grant that Cheops & Co. took to architecture first. 
But anyway these Minorcan pyramids were up long 
before Lully’s time, and that’s enough for us. The 
Recipe’s there, just waiting to be fetched. We must 
drink success to this.” 

A waitress brought us filled glasses, and we toasted 
one another. Then I told Weems openly enough 
about my financial position, and asked him to advance 
me enough for passage money. I smd I knew the 
language and the route and all the rest of it, and the 
outlay for the pair, of us would be very little more than 
what it would cost him to go alone. In fact, I was 
going on to sketch out the trip, and tot up the items 
of cost, when he cut me short, and coldly intimated 
that he did not intend to part with a cent. He did 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 


53 


not even plead poverty. He gave no reason what- 
ever. 

I stared at him for a minute or so blankly. That 
he would refuse what I asked had never occurred to 
me. At last I blurted out, “ AVhy, good God, man, I 
needn’t have told you about the thing at all. If I’d 
held my tongue, you know very well you’d have parted 
with the book in absolute ignorance of what it con- 
tained.” 

“ I might or might not have looked into it, Mr. 
Cospatric. That is as may be. But the most ordinary 
honesty would have compelled you to speak when I 
did. Perhaps I refused your request too abruptly just 
now. Believe me, I am not ungrateful for the service 
you have rendered. In fact, I should like to prove 
my obligation. But I could not have you labour un- 
der the error that you are entitled to a half share of 
whatever profits may accrue. Tliis Eecipe is mine — 
entirely mine, Mr. Cospatric, and it is not likely that 
I am going to put you in the way of annexing a share 
of it. Of course, legally, you have no claim on me, 
but as you say you are in indigent circumstances, I am 
willing to stretch a point, and do more than I other- 
wise should. I will give you the remainder of my cir- 
cular ticket. That will take you back to England, 
let me see — via — ” 

“ You scurvy little blackguard,” said I, beginning 
to lose my temper, “ aren’t you afraid of being killed ? ” 


54 the recipe for diamonds. 

He got very red, and exclaimed pompously, “ Don’t 
you attempt bombast with me, Mr. Cospatric. I am 
as safe from your personal violence here as I should be 
at home.” 

“ Then,” said I, “ you must live at a tolerably lively 
place, for here there are at least four men knifed every 
week, and more when things are brisk.” 

“ I shall put myself under the protection of the po- 
lice, if you threaten me,” said he, evidently beginning 
to feel a bit uneasy. 

“And I should like to know how the devil you 
would set about doing that same ? Why, my blessed 
rustic, supposing you knew the lingo, which you don’t, 
and you went up to the local substitute for a bobby, 
and said you wanted to get under his cloak, d’ye know 
what he’d do ? Why, run you in straight away. And in 
quod you’d stop ; there isn’t a soul in the city here 
who’d say a word for you.” Of course all this was a 
bluff, but I knew the average Briton has an intense be- 
lief in official lawlessness on the Continent, and I 
thought I’d reckoned up this specimen pretty accu- 
rately. It looked as if I was right. He changed tack 
promptly, dropped the dictatorial schoolmaster and 
started fawning. ^ I seemed to have mistaken his mo- 
tives. As a man of science he naturally took an in- 
tense interest in this Recipe, and wished to have the 
administration of it entirely in his own hands. But, 
of course, I must have known that as a gentleman he 


MR. WEEMS AND HIS PURCHASE. 


55 


would feel bound to divide any fortune that might pro- 
ceed from it, equally with me. 

As a point of fact, I hadn’t understood this. I had 
also overlooked the item that he was a gentleman, and 
even then did not recognise it. But I kept these 
trifles to myself ; and as he was evidently trying to bury 
the hatchet, I got out my spade as well. And for the 
rest of that evening we were as civil to one another as 
a couple of smugglers with one load of bales. 

We were to work the thing together on his coin 
and my experience, both of which were equally neces- 
sary ; and as for the plunder there’d be a belly-full for 
the pair of us, and a lot to spare. Thank goodness, 
women existed, and as long as they didn’t die out, the 
inhabitants of this globe would always buy diamonds, 
if the market was not over-glutted. 

And we’d start by the train which set off along the 
coast at 7.10 the next morning. 

When we get comfortably to Mahon, thought I, I’ll 
tell Mr. Schoolmaster that the proof of the pudding 
can be found near the Recipe, for according to the 
illustrious Doctor’s account, he has buried in the floor 
of the Talayot a fist-full of diamonds from his own 
manufactory. But as the little chap seems keen 
enough already. I’ll let that stand over for the present. 
If at any time he wants an extra spur, it will come in 
handy. 


6 


WANTED, A PASSAGE. 


It had been agreed that we were to start off next 
morning by the 7.10 train; and half-an-hour be- 
fore that time saw me standing before the Columbus 
statue in the Piazza Acquaverdi. Weems was such a 
mighty squeamish little creature about the proprieties 
that I thought an old dunnage-sack would scandalise 
him, and so had purchased a drab portmanteau for 
my kit at the cost of half my remaining capital. I 
intended to have no more breezes with him if it could 
be avoided. 

The minute-hand of the clock above the central 
entrance of the station crept up to the vertical, and 
began to droop. Cab after cab rolled up over the 
flagstones and teemed out people and properties. 
Still my man came not. He had distinctly said he 
would be in good time, as he had baggage to be regis- 
tered, and disliked being hurried. Still it began to 
look, in spite of his bragging about never having over- 
slept himself in his life, as if he had been late in turn- 
ing out. 


WANTED, A PASSAGE. 


57 


The clock showed three minutes past the hour, 
and the big hand, being on the down grade, began to 
race. I walked through the rank of waiting cabs and 
stood by the pillars of the central doorway. If we 
missed this train we should lose a day. The 9.35 
didn’t go through as we had seen from the time-table 
overnight. It only landed one at Marseilles. 

The crowd of incoming people began to lessen, 
and finally ceased altogether. The last passenger 
passed through on to the platform, and the officials 
locked the waiting-room doors. We had missed that 
blessed train. 

I cursed Weems vigorously, and set off to Isotta’s, 
where he was staying, to beat him up, swinging the 
drab portmanteau in my fist, as I did’t want to pay 
for leaving it, for somehow or other economy seemed 
to me at that moment to be a strong line. 

The Swiss day-porter was just coming down. He 
was a gorgeous personage who could have saved the 
architect of Babel his great disappointment, and at 
first he knew nothing of Mistaire Weem. Evidently 
the schoolmaster had not been generous. So I in- 
quired in the bureau for my man’s number, intending 
to beat up his room then and there, but was met by 
the staggering announcement that the Signor had 
cleared by the Marseilles train which left Genoa at 
3.30 in the morning. But there was a letter for me. 

I tore the limp envelope and read ; 


58 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“Grand Hotel Isotta, Genova^ Tuesday. 

“ Dear Sir : Upon consideration I must return to 
my original decision. I fear I shall have left Genoa 
before you receive this, but do not trouble to give me 
any thanks. The balance of the circular ticket is very 
much at your service. Yours faithfully, 

“ R. E. Weems. 

“ — CoSPATRIC, Esq.” 

The little beast had done me brown. 

It was getting on for eight o’clock then. I glanced 
at a time-table. He was due to leave Marseilles at 8.04. 
By Jove, if I could have trumped up any charge that 
would have held water a minute, I’d have had him ar- 
rested by wire. Anything to delay him ! I was just 
savage mad. And I was as helpless as a figure-head. 

I swung out into the Via Roma wondering what 
to do next. Common sense said go and take up my 
berth on the American steamer, and quit crying 
for the moon now that it had bounced out of reach 
again. But I was far too wild to listen to any sane 
sober plan like that. I couldn’t swim out to Minorca, 
and I could not fly ; but I told myself grimly that I 
was going somehow, and if Weems had got there first 
and collared the Recipe, he’d just have to hand over 
— or — well, it would be the worse for Weems. I 
shouldn’t buy lavender kid gloves to handle him 
with. 


WANTED, A PASSAGE. 


59 


All that day I hunted about, trying to get a passage 
across to the islands, needless to remark without suc- 
cess. The mail steamers run there from Valencia and 
Barcelona only, and though there are occasional orange 
boats passing between Loller in North Mallorca and 
Marseilles, they aren’t to be depended on. By a sin- 
gular irony of fate I did come across an old white- 
painted barque which had just come out of Palma in 
ballast, but her skipper only told what I knew full 
well in my own heart, that I might very likely wait 
three years before I found a craft going the other 
way. 

There seemed nothing for it but to go like a sen- 
sible Christian by train round the coast, and then 
across from one of the two Spanish ports by the reg- 
ular ramshackle mail steamer. And so I bowed to 
fate and converted the drab portmanteau and all its 
contents into the compactest form. The lot didn’t 
fetch much. By dint of tedious haggling, I scraped 
together twenty-three lire thirty ; and without selling 
the clothes on my back, and one other item, which I 
had rather sell the teeth out of my head than part 
with, I didn’t see a possibility of getting more by that 
sort of trade. However, I had only collected this slen- 
der store in the hopes of increasing it, and as soon as 
night came down and such places are open, I marched 
off to a gambling hell which I knew of in the low part 
of the town near the harbour side. The way lay 


60 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


through many passages and up many steps, and it was 
by no means a place to which the general public were 
admitted. In fact, in its style it was far more exclu- 
sive than the salle dejeu run by Monsieur Blanc’s suc- 
cessors at Monte. But I had been there before and 
knew how to get the entre. 

The whitewashed walls were grimy ; the two naked 
gas-jets jumped and hooted spasmodically ; and those 
who knew said that the atmosphere was reminiscent 
of a slaver’s hold. The officials wore their shirt- 
sleeves rolled up for greater ease in movement, and no 
gentleman was allowed to enter the room till he had 
deposited his knife outside the door. 

With the fluctuating population of a seaport, one 
might reasonably expect to find most nationalities 
represented at such a seductive spot ; but as a point 
of fact the operators on that night were almost exclu- 
sively Italians. The sailor, take him in the bulk, is 
a tolerable fool all the world over ; hut the northern- 
er has some grains of sense though he is a sportsman, 
and roulette with twenty-six numbers and a zero is a 
trifle too strong an order even for him. 

I had fixed my desires at a hundred and twenty 
lire. Less would not see me through : more I was 
not going to try for. 

In that assembly a man who plunges half-lire 
pieces on every spin of the ball is a man who means 
business ; and the dilettanti soon let me press through 


WANTED, A PASSAGE. 


61 


to a stool at the table. Going on 'pair and impair^ or 
the colour, was not to my taste. Either luck was 
going to stand by me that evening, or I was going to 
be broke : so I planked my money haphazard on four 
numbers every time, and didn’t handicap myself with 
a system. I’d a distinct suspicion that the Bank had 
even a greater pull than was apparent on the surface, 
but there was no chance of investigation, and I sub- 
mitted to the fact that chances all-told stood about 
two to one against me. 

The play was slow, and for ordinary people unex- 
citing, though you can guess it did not send me to 
sleep. I won a little, and lost a little; but on the 
whole was able to shove a ten-lire note every now and 
again into my pocket. It doesn’t do to leave such 
trifles about in some places. 

A clock outside chimed ten, and I could count up 
sixty-four lire fifty. What with Italian tobacco, and 
Italian garlic, and Italian humanity, the air had got 
something too awful for words. The arteries inside 
my skull were playing some devil’s tune of TlmmpeU 
ty Bump that caused me to see mistily and to wish 
for an earthquake which would re-arrange terrestrial 
economy. In short, I couldn’t stand it any longer, 
and so went out for a few minutes’ spell in the open. 

But I didn’t luxuriate over-long. The thought 
occurred to me that Weems was already at Cerbere, 
and in another hour and forty minutes would be hav- 


62 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


ing his baggage examined by an individual in green 
cotton gloves at Port Bon, previous to pursuing his 
career of conquest down into Spain. And by this 
time, my grudge against that sclioolmaster person 
had grown to be a very big one indeed. So I gave up 
parading the muddy paving- stones, and turned back 
into the biscazza, 

A new arrival had turned up during my absence, 
a long lean Englishman named Haigh, whom I had 
met casually once before. His nerves seemed in a 
delicate condition, for when the water-logged gas 
jumped, he jumped too, and moreover tried to do it 
as unobtrusively as possible, as if conscious and not 
over-proud of the failing. But he was gambling 
keenly and coolly enough, picking his notes one by 
one from a leather pocket-book, blinking over them 
to make sure of their value, and watching them un- 
failingly gathered up by the grimy paw of the crou- 
pier without an outward sign of regret. 

I looked on a minute, thinking what a queer fish 
he was, and then elbowing in to the table started 
afresh on my own trading. 

Fortune seemed to have improved by the rest. 
Three rattles of the pea brought my total up to a 
hundred and fifteen francs in Greek, French, and 
Italian money. 

A hundred and twenty was certainly the original 
goal, but I had a precious great mind then to let the 


WANTED, A PASSAGE. 


63 


other five slide. In fact, I drew away from the table 
intending to stop. But instead of quitting the place 
there and then, I was fool enough to argue the posi- 
tion out solemnly to myself, with the result that I 
eventually decided the whole affair from beginning to 
end to be entirely of the nature of a gamble, and 
naturally felt bound to test whether the luck was 
going to hold any longer. 

Indecision’s my strong point; and many’s the 
time I’ve had to pay for it. If I’d cleared out on the 
first impulse, I should have been comparatively afflu- 
ent. As it was, ten more minutes beside that greasy 
baize cleared me down to the lining. 

However, if I had made a donkey of myself, it 
wasn’t an altogether novel experience, and I was phi- 
losopher enough not to weep over it. So I crammed 
my fists into my pockets by way of ballast, and saun- 
tered to the door for a trifle of property which the 
regulations had made me leave there. 

Whilst I was picking my own particular weapon 
from amongst the armoury, Haigh joined me, announc- 
ing that he also was cleaned out ; and adding that he 
was not altogether sorry, as those flickering gas-jets 
bothered him. 

The observation, if slightly illogical, was very ex- 
planatory, and so thinking that he’d be none the worse 
for being looked after, I said I’d stroll back up into 
the town with him. As we went up through the nar- 


64 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


row streets, he imparted a long detail of woe ; but he 
maundered over it considerably, and whether the lady 
who was mostly in question was his own wife, or some 
one else’s wife, or no wife at all, was a point still hid- 
den from me when we sheered up in front of his 
hotel. Here he got more mournful still and quitted 
the tale of his past ill-treatment for a more pressing 
question of the present. 

“ Yes, here we are, old chap, and I’m awfully sorry 
I can’t ask you in to have something. But the fact 
is, I’m not in very good odour there just at present. 
My bill, d’ye see’s been galloping for the last three 
weeks, and at lunch to-day the proprietor-fellow said 
he couldn’t wait any longer for my remittances. He 
said that if they didn’t come by evening, he’d rather I 
went, leaving my baggage behind by way of souvenir. 
I’m afraid the two portmanteaux aren’t worth very 
much, as I’ve — er — disposed of most of the contents, 
and supplied the weight by pieces of iron kentledge 
done up in one or other of the daily papers. I had a 
notion that I should have raised funds this evening, but 
circumstances intervened which — er — you understand, 
made me somewhat worse off than before. Of course 
if I went in there, they might put me up again for to- 
night ; but that proprietor-fellow might be about, and 
I shouldn’t care to meet him. He’s such a nasty 
way of looking at a chap. So I think on the whole I 
shall just go down and sleep on my boat.” 


WANTED, A PASSAGE. 


65 


“ Your boat?” I repeated, in a dazed sort of way. 

“ Yes,” said Haigh, blinking at me anxiously ; 
“ just a little cutter I’ve got down there in the har- 
bour. But I say, dear chappie, you aren’t taking it 
unkindly that I don’t ask you in here, are you? ’Pon 
my honour, if I weren’t dead stony broke I’d give you 
a drink either in this place or — ” 

“Hang your drinks, you lucky man. If your 
boat and my knowledge doesn’t transmogrify us from 
a pair of stone-brokes into a couple of bloated mil- 
lionaires, I’m a Dutchman. Come along, man. Come 
along now.” 


VI. 


FORE AKD AFT SEAMANSHIP. 

It has been my fate to put to sea in some of the 
worst-found craft that ever scrambled into port again ; 
but of the lot that ugly little cutter of Haigh’s stands 
pre-eminent. 

She possessed no single good point in her favour. 
She had swung in harbour so long that everywhere 
above the water line she was as staunch as a herring- 
net. Her standing rigging, being of wire, was merely 
rusted, but her running gear was something too ap- 
palling to think about. As for her bottom, if she 
had been turned up and dried for a day (so Haigh 
cheerfully averred) there would have been enough 
bushy cover on it to put down pheasants in. Fittings, 
even the barest necessaries, were painfully lacking, as 
the man had been living riotously on them for over a 
month and a half. A Chinese pirate could not have 
picked her much cleaner. What he was pleased to 
term the “ superfluities of the main and after cabins ” 
had gone first, fetching fair prices. Afterwards he 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. 


67 


had peddled his gear little by little, dining one day 
off a riding-light, going to a theatre the next on two 
marline spikes and a sister-block, and so on. His 
ground tackle, long saved up for a tonne touche^ had 
provided funds for that last night in the gambling 
hell, where we both got cleared out together; and the 
balance that was left didn’t represent a mosquito’s 
ransom. 

Haigh told me all this as we walked back again 
down the narrow streets to the quay, and I suggested 
that although Mediterranean air was good, we couldn’t 
exactly live on it during the passage across. But he 
pointed out that as his dinghy was very old and rot- 
ten, it would be quite a useless encumbrance on the 
cruise ; and so, dropping me on board the cutter, he 
sculled off again to swap this old wreck for provisions. 

I roused out a weather-thinned mainsail, black 
with mildew, and bent it ; and by the time that was 
on the spars he had completed his barter and had 
been put on board again by a friend. 

AVe had a dozen words of conversation, and then 
got small canvas hoisted and quietly slipped moorings. 
The night was very black, and thick with driving 
rain, but we slid out through the pier-heads unques- 
tioned save by a passing launch which hailed and was 
politely answered in gibberish. 

There was a singular lack of formality about our 
departure, which was much to be regretted. But 


68 the recipe for diamonds. 

there was some small trouble about big accumulations 
of harbour dues, and such minor items, which would 
have had to be settled in return for a clearance en 
regie; and, remembering how history was galloping, 
we could not afford the time to deal with them. And 
so, after a narrow squeak of being cut down by a big 
steamer just outside, we found ourselves close-hauled 
under all plain sail, making a long leg with a short 
one to follow. 

“ Funds wouldn’t run to the luxury of a chart,” 
observed Haigh, when I inquired about this trifle, 
“ but I had a look at a big Mediterranean track chart 
at the place where I bartered the dinghy, and the 
course to Port Mahon is due south-west, as near as no 
matter.” 

“ As near as no matter,” groaned I in response. 

“ Why, my dear chap, we really can’t indulge in 
the extreme niceties of navigation. We’ve got a com- 
pass which is fairly accurate if you joggle it with your 
finger occasionally, and we can fix up a lead line when 
we get in soundings, and I daresay we can make a 
log. D’you mind having a spell at the pump now? 
I’m a bit out of condition.” 

The leaking decreased as the planking swelled to 
the wet, but other unpleasantnesses began to show 
themselves. One of the greatest, to my way of think- 
ing, was the way we were victualed. To begin with, 
there were twenty- three bottles of vermouth, straw- 


FORE AND APT SEAMANSHIP. 


69 


jacketed, and carefully stowed. Then there was a 
bag of condemned sea biscuits, which Haigh pleas- 
antly alluded to as “ perambulators.” And the list of 
solids was completed by half-a-dozen four-pound tins 
of corned beef, and a hundred and fifty excellent 
cigars which had not paid duty. There was an iron 
tank full of rusty water which “ had to do,” as refill- 
ing it might have entailed awkward questions. And, 
lastly, there had been brought on board a very small 
and much-corroded kedge anchor, which, as it was 
the only implement of its kind that we possessed, 
gave much force to Haigh’s comment that “ it might 
come in handy.” 

To tell the truth, when the cold sea air blew away 
the glamour of plotting and planning, and I was able 
to tot up all these accessories with a practical mind, I 
was beginning very much to wish myself well off what 
seemed a certain road to Jones. 

Haigh, on the other hand, seemed supremely con- 
tented and happy. Yachting as a general thing, he 
said, he found slow ; but this cruise had an element of 
novelty which made it vastly entertaining. He had 
never heard of anyone deliberately getting to sea quite 
under such circumstances before. He didn’t uphold 
the wisdom of the proceeding in the least, for when I 
grunted something about the world not containing 
such another pair of thorough -paced fools, he agreed 
with me promptly. In fact, he was in far too jovial a 


70 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


humour to argue about anything, and by degrees I be- 
gan to fall in with his vein. “ Let’s split a bottle of 
vermouth,” said he, “ and drink confusion to everyone 
except our two selves.” And we did it. 

The breeze lulled at daybreak, and northed till we 
had it nearly fair. 

“This is great business,” said Haigh. “I’ll bet 
you five hundred pounds that we make the islands in 
the next twenty-four hours. I. 0. U.’s accepted.” 
He slipped off the after-hatch, and dragged up from 
the counter a venerable relic of a spinnaker which was 
one vivid mottle of mildew. The sail was duly 
mocked and set. The wind was freshening, and our 
pace increased. The cutter and her parasitical escort 
kicked up enough wake for a Cardiff ore-steamer. 

“Who says a foul bottom matters now?” said 
Haigh. “ Who wdll suggest that she isn’t kicking 
past this scenery at nine knots ? Bless the ugly lines 
of her, we mustn’t forget her builder’s health. Hand 
up another bottle of that vermouth, and the dipper.” 

We lifted her through it all that morning at a 
splendid pace, the wake boiling up astern like a mill- 
tail. The two booms did certainly make occasional 
plunges which might have jarred timid nerves, but 
such a trifie did not disturb us. 

“ It’s the best bit of racing I’ve ever done,” said 
Haigh. “ There’s a pig of a following sea, and the 
wind’s squally. Just her weather. If we’d only got 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. 71 

another craft trying to beat us, the thing would be 
perfect. We should have some inducement to carry 
on then.” 

Whilst we were eating our midday meal (on deck, 
of course) that variegated spinnaker went “pop,” 
splitting neatly from head-cringle to footrope. It was 
my trick at the tiller, and so I was tied aft. Haigh 
peered round at the ruin, and returned to his occu- 
pation of knocking weevils out of his biscuit. He 
didn’t think it worth while to budge, and so we 
let the canvas blow into whatever shaped ribands 
it chose. If we couldn’t carry the sail, we didn’t 
want it. 

The wind hardened down as the day went on, and 
every knot we went the sea got worse. The ugly 
cutter slid down one wet incline, drove up the next, 
and squattered through the hissing crest with a good 
deal of grumbling, and plunging, and rolling, and 
complaining. But she had a good grip of the water, 
and with decently careful steering she showed but 
small inclination to broach-to, or do anything else she 
wasn’t wanted to. She might not be a beauty ; she 
might be sluggish as a haystack in a light breeze; 
but, as Haigh said, this was just her day, and we were 
not too nervous to take advantage of it. Still, con- 
sidering her small tonnage and the fact that all her 
tackle was so infernally rotten, she took a tidy bit of 
looking after. You see, we might be reckless about 
6 


72 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


our skins, but at the same time we were very keenly 
anxious to make the Balearic Islands. 

The thing that I mostly feared was that our old 
ruin of a mainsail would take leave of us. If once it 
started to split the whole lot would go like a sheet of 
tissue-paper. However, whether we liked it or not, 
we had to run on now. The wind and sea were both 
far too heavy to dream of an attempt at rounding-to. 
And indeed, even if we had succeeded in slewing her 
head to the wind without getting swamped in the 
process (the odds on which were about nine hun- 
dred to one against) it was distinctly doubtful as to 
whether she would deign to stay there. Small cut- 
ters are not great at staying hove-to in really dirty 
weather. 

And so we topped the boom well up, hoisted the 
tack to prevent over-running the seas, and let her 
drive ; and whilst Haigh clung on to the tiller and 
its weather rope, I busied myself with a bent sail- 
needle at stitching up any places within reach on the 
mainsail where the seams seemed to be working loose. 

Soon after dark that night — and I never saw 
much more inky blackness in my life — we came 
across a deep-laden brig which very nearly gave us 
a quietus. She was running sluggishly under lower 
fore-topsail, Avallowing like a log-raft in a rapid, and 
doing less than a third of our knottage. We pos- 
sessed neither side lamps nor oil, and showed no 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. 


73 


light ; and as she had not a lantern astern, we got no 
glimmer of warning till we were within a dozen 
fathoms of her tatfrail. Haigh couldn’t give the cut- 
ter much helm for fear of gibing her, and carrying 
away everything ; and consequently we did not clear 
that brig’s low quarter by more than a short fathom. 
Had we passed her to starboard instead of to port, we 
should have fouled our main boom, and — well, we 
shouldn’t have got any further. 

As we tore past, the white water squirming and 
hissing between the vessels’ sides, a man leaned over 
the bulwark with his face looking like a red devil’s 
in the glare of the port light, and shook a fist and 
screamed a frightened venomous curse. Our only 
reply was a wild roar of laughter. As we drove off 
into the mist of scud ahead, I looked back and saw 
the man staring after us with dropped jaw and eyes 
fairly goggling. He must have thought us mad. 
Indeed, I believe we had taken leave of some of our 
senses then. 

“ Vermouth’s cheapening,” said Haigh. “ Pass up 
another bottle. If we do happen to go to Jones, it’ ud 
be a thousand pities to take the liquor down with us 
undecanted.” 

Don’t get the idea that we were drunk all through 
that wild cruise, because we were not. But one thing 
and another combined to make the excitement so vivid, 
that with the liquor handy it did not take much in- 


74 : 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


ducement to make us tipple pretty heavily. We were 
vilely fed, bitterly exposed, heavily overworked, unable 
even to smoke — and — the vermouth was very, very 
good. 

As the seas swept her, the ugly cutter’s planking 
swelled ; but before she became staunch, a fearful 
amount of water had passed into her. Haigh, who was 
in no sort of condition, got utterly spun out by a five- 
minutes’ spell at the pump, and consequently it had 
been my task to restore the incoming Mediterranean 
to its proper place again. It was a job that wearied 
every nerve in my body. The constant and monoto- 
nous heaving up and down of a pump-handle — probably 
the most exhausting work existent — and soon after 
passing that deeply-laden brig I pumped her dry for 
(what seemed) the ten thousandth time, and toppled 
on the deck dead-beat. 

“ Look here,” said Haigh, “ you get below and turn 
in. I’m quite equal to keeping awake until further 
notice. I’m never much of a hand at sleeping at the 
best of times ; and just now I’m well wouyd-up for a 
week’s watch on end. If you’re wanted. I’ll call you. 
Go.” 

I slipped down without argument, dropped into a 
bare and clammy bunk, and slept. 

Haigh never roused me. I woke of my own accord, 
and found daylight struggling in through the dusty 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. ^5 

sky-light : the after-cabin roof. After yawning there 
a minute or so, I conquered laziness and returned to 
the deck. 

Those who think the Inland Sea is always calm 
ultramarine under a sky to match, should have seen 
it then. The colouring was all of greys and whites, 
with here and there a slab of cold, clear green where a 
big wave heaved up sheer. It was awfully wild. The 
sea was running higher than ever, and the gale had not 
slackened one bit. The brine-smoke was hissing 
through our cross-trees in dense white clouds. 

Haigh greeted me with a nod and a grin. His hat 
had gone, and the dank wisps of his hair were being 
fluttered about like black rags ; his narrow slits of eyes 
were heavily bloodshot ; his face was grimy and pale, 
his hands grimy and red ; his clothing was a wreck. 
He looked very unpleasant, but he was undoubtedly 
very broad awake. He resigned the tiller and rope, 
and began gingerly to stretch his cramped limbs, talk- 
ing the while. 

“ D’ye see that steamer, broad ish on the weather- 
bow ? ” 

I looked, and saw on the grey horizon a thin streak 
of a different grey. 

“ I rose her a quarter of an hour ago,” he went on, 
“ and bore away a couple of points so as to cut her off. 
I’m thinking it wouldn’t be a bad idea to speak her if 
it could be managed, and find out where we are. As 


76 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


we haven’t been able to rig a log-ship and line, and as 
the steering has been to say the least of it erratic, our 
dead reckoning has been some of the roughest. Per- 
sonally I wouldn’t bet upon our whereabouts to quite a 
hundred miles. Ta ta.” 

He went below to smoke leaving me fully occupied 
with the steering. We rose the steamer pretty fast, 
and in half-an-hour could see her water line when she 
lifted. She was a fine screw boat of three thousand 
tons, racing along at eighteen knots, and rolling with 
the beam sea up to her rails in spite of the fore and 
aft canvas they had set to steady her. 

Haigh came back to deck blinking like an owl at 
the growing day. “ Look at the grey-backs chivying 
her,” said he. “ Aren’t the passengers just sorry for 
themselves now? And won’t they have some fine 
yarns to pitch when they get ashore about the hardest 
gale the captain ever knew, and their own heroic ef- 
forts (down below) and all the rest of it. I’ve listened 
to those tales of desperate adventure by the hour to- 
gether. Passengers by Dover-Calais packets are great 
at ’em.” 

All this while we were closing up. The steamer’s 
decks were tenantless save for a couple of look-outs 
forward in oilskin bright varnished by the spindrift, 
and a couple of officers crouched behind the can- 
vas of the bridge, and holding fast on to the stanch- 
ions. I was clearing my throat to hail these last, 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. 77 

when Haigh turned and told me I might save my 
wind. 

“ Never mind,” he said, “ I know her well. She’s 
the Eugme Perrier^ a Transatlantique Company’s 
boat, one of the quick line out of Algiers for Marseilles. 
Look at your compass, and note the course she’s steer- 
ing — N. N. E. and by E. That’s from Cape Bajoli 
straight for Marseilles. They run both ways between 
Mallorca and Minorca without touching. Hooray! 
who says our luck isn’t stupendous ? Here we are, not 
having made enough southing, and heading so as to 
fetch Gibraltar without sighting the Islands at all. 
And then in the nick of time up comes a dea ex 
machind in the guise of the Eugene Perrier to shove 
us on the course again. In mainsheet, and then, blow 
me if we won’t have a bottle of that vermouth by way 
of celebrating the event in a way at once highly becom- 
ing and original.” 

We made a landfall that afternoon off some of the 
high ground in North-east Mallorca, and Haigh gave 
over champing his cold cigar-butt, and delivered him- 
self of an idea. 

“ Isn’t there another harbour in Minorca besides 
Port Mahon ? ” 

I said I believed there were some half-dozen small 
ones. 

“ Any this west side ? ” 

“ Cindadella, about in the middle.” 


78 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ Know anything about it ? ” 

“ Nothing, except the fact of its existence, and as 
we have no vestige of chart I don’t exactly see how we 
are to learn anything more.” 

“ Precisely. Then, my dear chap, to finish this 
cruise consistently, Cindadella must now become our 
objective. It would take us another day to run round 
under the lee of the island to Port Mahon, and days 
are valuable. The cutter’s only drawing five foot five, 
and with our luck at its present premium you’ll see 
we’ll worry in somehow without piling her up. Per- 
haps we may get some misguided person to come out 
and con us. Of course we’ll take him if anyone does 
offer, and owe him the pilotage ; but I’d just as soon 
we navigated her on our own impudent hook. It’s no 
use having a big credit on the Universal Luck Bank if 
you don’t draw on it heavily. The concern may bust 
up any day.” 

Luckily for us the gale had eased, or we should 
never have been able to put the cutter on the wind. 
But, as it was, with a four-reefed mainsail and a bit of 
a pocket-handkerchief jib, she lay the course like a 
Cowes-built racing forty ; and if she did ship it green 
occasionally, there was no rail to hold the water in 
bond. We didn’t spare her an ounce. We kept her 
slap on her course, neither luffing up nor bearing away 
for anything. That was the sort of weather when the 
ugliness of the old cutter’s lines was forgotten, and one 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. 


79 


saw only beauties in them. She might send the spin- 
drift squirting through her cross-trees, but with the 
chap at the helm keeping her well a-going, she’d 
smoke through bad dirt like a steamer. 

We rose the low cliffs of Eastern Minorca about 
half-way across, but rain came on directly afterwards, 
and in the thickness we lost them again. In that odd 
way in which things one has glanced through in a 
book recur to one when they are wanted, I had man- 
aged to recall something I had once conned over in a 
Sailing Directions about Cindadella. The harbour 
entrance was narrow — scarcely a cable’s length across 
— and it was marked by a lighthouse on the northern 
side, and a castle or tower or something of that kind 
on the other bank. The town behind, with its heavy 
walls and white houses, was plainly visible from sea- 
ward, and the spire of the principal church was some- 
how used as a leading mark. But whether one had to 
keep it on the lighthouse or the castle, I could not 
recollect. Neither could I call to mind whether there 
was a bar. In fact, I could not remember a single 
thing else about the place, and as Haigh remarked 
what little I did recall (without being in any way cer- 
tain about its accuracy) was of singularly little practical 
use. But this ignorance did not deter us from hold- 
ing on towards the coast in the very least. We might 
pile up the cutter on some outlying reef, but we 
were both cock-sure that our stupendous luck was 


80 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


going to set in safe ashore somehow. Et apres — the 
Recipe. 

We held on sturdily, lifting slant- wise over the 
heavy green rollers till we were within half-a-mile of 
the land, and could see the surf creaming to the heads 
of the low cliffs, and could hear the moaning and 
booming as it broke on rocky outliers ; and then eas- 
ing off sheets again, we put up helm and ran down 
parallel with the coast. Being blissfully ignorant of 
anything beyond a general idea of Minorca’s outlines, 
we had to keep a very wary look-out ; for a heavy rain 
had started to drive down with the gale, and looking 
to windward was like peering through a dirty cambric 
pocket-handkerchief. Indeed, we made two several 
attempts at running down the island each sufficiently 
distinct to have made any ordinary sailorman in his 
sane senses get snugly to sea without further humbug- 
ging. And the afternoon wore on without our seeing 
either the lighthouse, the castle, or the town we were 
looking [for ; and just upon dusk the coast turned 
sharply off to the eastward. 

“ That looks like a bay,” said Haigh, peering at 
the land that was rising and falling over our weather 
quarter. “ If we hold on as we are going, we ought 
to pick up the other horn of it.” So we stuck to the 
course for three hours, and then came to the conclu- 
sion that the point we had seen must have been the 
extremity of the island, and that we were at present 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. 81 

heading for a continent named Africa, then distant 
some two hundred nautical miles. 

The discovery cast a gloom over the ship’s com- 
pany. Our nerves were in a condition then for tak- 
ing strong impressions. For myself, all lightheart- 
edness flitted away. The ugly cutter’s good deeds 
were forgotten, and she appeared nothing more nor 
less than an ill-formed cockle-shell. The gale was 
terrific. I was bone-weary: also the most particu- 
larly damned fool on the globe’s surface. 

What Haigh’s personal conclusions were I do not 
know. He said nothing, but stood propped against 
the weather runner mumbling over an unlit cigar, 
and peering into the mist. 

After a while he turned. “ Here, give me the 
helm, Cospatric, and do you get your strong fists on 
the mainsheet. We’ll put her on the wind again, as 
close-hauled as she’ll look at it. It’s no use ratching 
up to windward again hunting for Cindadella, as ten 
to one we’d miss it a second time. We’ll just run 
along the lee coast here for Port Mahon. There, 
now she’s heading up for it like a steamer.” 

There was silence for a while, and we listened to 
the swish of the seas and the rattle of the wind 
through the rigging. Then Haigh delivered himself 
of further wisdom. 

“ It’s a queer gamble, this, take it through and 
back, and it’s remarkably like roulette in being a 


82 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


game where a system doesn’t pay. As long as we 
worked haphazard we did wonders. As soon as we 
tried to do a rational thing and make that harbour 
at Cindadella, we got euchred. Well, I daresay we 
both know how to take a whipping without howling 
over it. So for the present let us eat and drink, for 
to-morrow we may drown. Knock me a biscuit out 
of the weevils, old chappie, and give me likewise ver- 
mouth and corned horse.” 

Had the wind remained in its old quarter, we 
could have made one board of it all up the southern 
flank of the island ; but, as if to accentuate the fact 
that we had already drawn more than our share of 
good fortune, the gale veered round to the east, and 
settled down to blow again in real hard earnest, 
bringing up with it a heavy sea. It was tack and 
tack all through the night, and we were always hard 
put to it to keep the ugly cutter afloat. Indeed, when 
some of the heavier squalls snorted down on to us, we 
simply liad to heave-to. It was just a choice between 
that and being blown bodily under water. 

The dawn was grey and wretched, but from the 
moment we sighted the last point the weather began 
to improve. The air cleared up, the gale began to 
ease, and when we ran in under Fort Isabelle just as 
the sunrise gun was fired, we saw that the day was 
going to turn out a fine one. 

The long snug harbour of Mahon, which was in 


FORE AND AFT SEAMANSHIP. 83 

the days of canvas wings almost always filled with 
craft refuging, is now in this era of steam usually 
tenantless. So it was a bit of a surprise to us to find 
the English Channel Fleet lying there at anchor. 
The big war steamers were getting their matutinal 
scrub, and were alive with blue-and-white-clothed 
men. .They looked very strong, very trim, very sea- 
worthy, and the bitter contrast between them and our 
tattered selves made me curse them with sailor’s point 
and fluency. Not so Haigh. He didn’t mind a bit ; 
rather enjoyed the rencontre^ in fact ; and producing 

a frayed Royal I blue ensign, ran it up to the 

peak and dipped it in salute. If I remember right it 
was the IinmortaliU we met first, and down went the 
St. George’s flag from her poop staff three times 
in answering salutation, whilst every pair of eyes on 
her decks was glued on the ugly cutter, their owners 
wondering where she had popped up from. And so we 
passed Her Particularly (?) * Britannic Majesty’s Ships 
Anson.^ Rodney., Camperdown, Curleio and Howe., and 
dropped our kedge overboard (at the end of the main 
halliards) close inside the torpedo-catcher Speedtoell. 

The strain was over. We staggered below and 
dropped into a dead sleep. Had there been a ton of 
diamonds waiting on the cliff road beside us, with 
half Mahon rushing to loot them, we could not have 
been induced to budge. 


* Extremely? Most? 


VII. 

A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL. 

Ii^DiviDUALLY the Minorcan is very amiably dis- 
posed towards the inhabitants of those other islands, 
Great Britain and Ireland. It is a matter of Spanish 
History that Minorca for many years groaned under 
English rule ; and as prosperity has steadily decayed 
since the native article has been substituted for this 
reign of tyranny, it is not wonderful that the average 
Minorcan has a hankering to groan again. Indeed 
he says as much with a candour that would be refresh- 
ing to haters of Victoria R et I’s expansive raj. But 
the Carabinero who guards the public morals holds 
(in the bulk) different opinions. He has no wish to 
be, like Othello, the possessor of a gone occupation; 
and by way of marking this distaste, he is apt on oc- 
casion to be uppish with the chance foreigner. 

By force of circumstances, Haigh and I were in 
the way of finding ourselves in no slight difficulties. 
The Briton in his own insular ports is a very slipshod 
person with regard to the papers of small craft — cs- 


A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL. 


85 


pecially pleasure craft. He looks upon those last with 
a favourable eye, and watches their going and coming 
with small concern. The peoples of the Mediterra- 
nean are constructed in different fashion. At the 
larger ports they are suspicious ; hut at the less fre- 
quented spots, firmly disbelieving that men can ever 
yacht for mere pleasure, they always take it for 
granted that any small craft is laden with explosives 
and conspiracy, until it has been most clearly and ex- 
haustively demonstrated that such is not the case. Of 
course the orthodox papers and clearances from one’s 
port of departure form the initial proof of innocence 
and harmlessness ; and equally of course the lack of 
formality which had signalised our departure from 
Genoa prevented the display of these. And in addi- 
tion, other matters combined to make our characters 
look still more shady. 

We must have been boarded by the authorities 
soon after bringing up to our anchor, and I was dim- 
ly conscious of a stooping person in uniform staring 
in at us through the cabin door. But I was far too 
weary to wake, or take any notice. However, the 
sight must have worked a dream into my sleep, for I 
remember imagining that official’s feelings when he 
gazed at the mildewed desolation of the ugly cutter’s 
interior, when he contrasted her size with the infer- 
nal gale she must have been sailing through to make 
the harbour, and when he noted that her entire crew 


86 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


consisted of two persons very much out of ordinary 
yachtsmen’s uniform. And then I had visions of 
further inquiries ; the official glee with which more 
unsatisfactory items were arrived at; the head -shakes 
of the British Vice-Consul ; and — and then after 
that a deluge of lurid complexion. 

These maundering cogitations must have spread 
themselves over a considerable time, for when Haigh 
roused me up, he said that I had slept very nearly 
round the clock. I pulled myself together and stared 
at him. He was looking distinctly excited ; and this, 
seeing that he was usually a very calm sort of fish, 
was remarkable. 

“ Never say our luck has broken,” said he. “ I’ve 
just performed a regular four-cornered miracle. That 
port-authority person called again about two hours 
back, and it began to dawn upon me that we were 
done for. He fairly bristled with suspicion. I could 
see it even in the set of his clothes. If I’d told him 
that as soon as our fieet was gone, you and I were 
going to take possession of the island in the name of 
the King of Ireland, he’d have believed it. Well, I 
temporised, having no yarn ready, and Luck came 
down in a tornado. Not one Spaniard in a thousand 
has a soul above a single miserable liqueur-glass ; but 
this one was the exception. He supped down that 
vermouth, pannikin after pannikin; and as he got 
more drunk, so did I get more eloquent. I believe at 


A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL. 87 

my strongest then I could have blarneyed Old Nick 
into giving me a draughty corner.” 

“ But what in the plague did you say to the man ? 
How could you get over the fact of having no clear- 
ance papers, and all the rest of it ? ” 

“ Simplest thing in the world, my dear chap, when 
once I’d grasped the idea. The cutter put out of 
Savona some two months ago — this being a fact, as I 
put documentary evidence under his nose to prove. 
Then she sailed to Corsica and lay in a tiny coaster’s 
harbour where there was no Captain of the Port or 
anyone else who could scribble on stamped paper. 
There we stayed all the time till the crew deserted, 
and we ourselves were evilly entreated, the yacht be- 
ing gutted by unprincipled natives. Apres^ you and 
I brought her across here alone, knowing this to be 
the abode of bliss. Of course, in his sober senses he’d 
never have believed a word of it ; but thanks to that 
lovely vermouth he swallowed the whole yarn, lock, 
stock and barrel, and wrote me out the wherewithal, 
and then tumbled off to sleep swearing by three local 
saints that he wanted to go to the same heaven I 
landed at.” 

“ But,” said I, “ when he’s sober, he’ll be down on 
us like a thousand of bricks.” 

“Not a bit of it, my dear chap. Don’t you know 
that all Spaniards can look upon a murder without 
emotion, but no Spaniard can see a drunken man 
7 


88 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


without being filled with loathing ? Our beauty on 
the locker there will be the last to give himself aw^ay. 
But never mind raging about this now. I woke you 
up for something else. Come on deck. There, do 
you see that steamer just opening out from the Hos- 
pital to land? That’s the Antiguo Maliones, the 
mail-boat from Barcelona. Unless he’s broken down 
somewhere, your man Weems should be on board.” 

“ I’m afraid not. According to the book of 
Steamer Sailings I looked at in Genoa, he ought 
to have left Barcelona three days ago.” 

“ Precisely ; but, old chappie, you don’t know the 
Antiguo Maliones. Now I do. She was built on the 
Clyde in the early sixties, and has seen much service 
under the Red Duster. When she grew old and out- 
classed, she followed the way of all steamers and w^as 
bought by a Mediterranean firm who quite under- 
stand her infirmities and nurse her accordingly. Her 
skipper is far too sensible a person to put to sea in 
anything approaching blowy weather, even though he 
does carry His Most Catholic Majesty’s mails; and 
the passengers are quite the class of people to appre- 
ciate his caution. Manana^ if you will remember, is 
the motto of the nation.” 

“ Well, if that’s the case,” I broke in, “ it seems to 
me our best plan will be to get ashore now <and go for 
our pickings in Talaiti de Talt without further delay. 
AVeems is always seasick, so he told me, from the 


A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL. 


89 


moment he leaves shore. He said it was a sign of a 
highly - organised mind, hinting that it was only 
coarse-fibred people who could keep their victuals 
under hatches in a roll. And so, as the Antiguo Ma- 
hones has been getting kicked about in big swell ever 
since she left Barcelona inner harbour, it’s pretty safe 
to bet that Master Weems has had the business part 
of his little soul churned completely out of him, and 
that he’ll go and lie up at Bustamente’s Hotel for a 
day or two to recruit. He’ll never guess we’re here, 
and consequently will see no cause for hurry. And 
besides, these Fleet sailormen will make an additional 
argument towards lying low for a bit. He’ll see how 
they wander about in batches into all sorts of unex- 
pected places, and he will be very chary about rootling 
up the cache whilst they are in the neighbourhood 
and likely to disturb him.” 

“ There’s a good deal in that,” commented Haigh, 
blinking at the shabby black steamer thoughtfully. 
“ You’d better pop down below in case he has ventured 
his little self on deck, and should happen to twig you. 
But still it’s best to be on the safe side.” He chose a 
cigar; lighted it and puffed for a minute; and then 
took it out of his mouth and grinned at the glowing 
end. “ Look here. The fellow doesn’t know me from 
Adam. I’ll slip ashore, and see if I can’t find snug 
quarters for him where he’ll be out of the way of do- 
ing mischief.” 


90 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ What piece of devilry are you up to now ? ” I 
inquired a bit anxiously ; for Haigh’s vagaries, from 
what I had seen and heard of them, ranged between 
wild and mad, and having got so near the Recipe, I 
didn’t want to get in any mess that would baulk us at the 
finish. “ You aren’t going to shoot the man, are you ? ” 

“ Haven’t got anything to shoot him with. No, 
I’m not going to lay hands on him at all. But I think 
I can get someone else to do it for me. It’s no 
use asking my scheme, because I haven’t got one. 
It’s only a vague idea that has occurred to me, but 
there’s no harm in giving it a trial. Only I must be 
off now, or the passengers will be landed before I get 
to the quay.” 

He took my hat and went on deck. I heard him 
hail someone in a passing boat, and presently he was 
taken off the cutter. I stood up and looked cautiously 
through the main sky-light, so as not to be viewed by 
any chance from without. The steamer was being 
brought up alongside the quay with true Spanish cau- 
tion and slowness ; warps being sent in all directions, 
boats flying about, a couple of anchors down, windlass 
and steam winches thundering. An English launch 
was lying-to close by, her crew highly amused at the 
display. And the quay was black with people enjoy- 
ing their bi-weekly sensation. 

Slowly the Antiguo Maliones swung parallel to the 
quay wall, and then a derrick chain was hauled out 


A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL. 


91 


and I heard the scrape of the big gangway as it drew 
along the gravel, and the thud of its iron-shod heel as 
it fell on deck and bridged the intervening two fath- 
oms of water. But the black hull of the steamer 
blotted out all view of the people beyond it, and on 
the cutter I could learn nothing more of what was go- 
ing on till Haigh came back. 

The last glow of sunset had died away. The white 
walls and red roofs of the town, up there on the cliff, 
were already beginning to be hazed out by darkness, 
and the soft yellow splashes of lamplight were grow- 
ing in number. 

I sat down, and cut up a cigar for my pipe. 

The situation did not please me at all. The more 
I thought it over, the more I remembered how uncer- 
tain Haigh was, and how likely he was to bring about 
some fiasco out of sheer devilry. If I’d had a boat I 
should have cut ashore there and then and made off 
to Talaiti de Talt without delaying a single moment. 
And as it was, with no boat, I more than once got to 
my legs with the intention of swimming ; but could 
never quite screw up my mind as to whether it was 
really advisable to do so. 

I kept cursing myself for this womanish inde- 
cision ; but even that didn’t improve matters. I could 
not figure out what to do for the best. And conse- 
quently, I stayed where I was and mumbled and 
mowed in black fury. 


92 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


Haigh was in all about an hour and a half gone, 
and returned very much cock-a-hoop with himself. He 
was brought on board by a smart boat rowed by four 
men, and telling them to wait, he came down below. 

“ Hullo, Cospatric, you’re looking as black as a 
Soudanese stoker with the stomach-ache. Hid ye 
think I’d been tampering with the interests of the 
firm? Not a bit of it, man. Thanks to his own nat- 
ural cussedness, I’ve just fixed your schoolmaster 
beautifully. The stars in their courses are backing 
up our stupendous luck. Some gentlemen of the an- 
archist persuasion have been blowing up men and 
women and marble seats in the Plaza Real at Barce- 
lona. Indiscriminate shooting on the part of the 
troops followed, and cables were sent to all parts to 
watch for escaping assassins. The affair happened 
after the Antiguo Maliones sailed, so far as I can make 
out ; but of course to the Spanish official mind that is 
a mere matter of detail. In these cases Spain expects 
that every man this day will exceed his duty. Weems 
being the only foreigner on board, and having the 
looks of a man who would not steal a potato, was nat- 
urally spotted at once, and a sub-officer of Carabineros 
demanded his passport. Weems, not knowing a word 
of Catalan, looked helpless. An interested mob col- 
lected and stared and made suggestions. None of 
them could speak a word of English. Weems got 
pale, and offered the Carabinero half a peseta. Had 


A DIPLOMATIC REMOVAL. 


93 


tlie bribe been a big one and tendered privately, it 
might have carried weight ; but as it was the offer was 
an insult. 

“ At this point I pushed through the crowd, and 
offered my services as an interpreter. I can imagine 
the little worm was never so humbly grateful in his 
life ; but when I told him that his passport was wanted 
he was the cock-sure schoolmaster ape in a moment. 
Such a thing was not requisite for travelling in Spain ; 
it was utterly superfluous : I might be ignorant of the 
fact, as so many people were ; but he could assure me 
it was so. A clerk at a Tourist Agency (in some pro- 
vincial town at home) had told him all about the 
matter. And so he had got no passport. Would I ex- 
plain these matters to the person in uniform, and in- 
form him that he would be pilloried in The Times, if 
he did not take great care of what he was about. 

“ As this couldn’t well be improved upon, I put it 
into Spanish, verbatim, and the Carabinero’s suspicion 
grew to certainty. ‘Did I know the Seflor?’ ‘No, 
never clapped eyes on him before.’ ‘ But he was a 
countryman of mine?’ With a suggestive shrug of 
the shoulders, ‘ I devoutly hoped not.’ ‘ Then it was 
his duty to make the Seflor his prisoner.’ 

“I imparted this information to Weems; who 
sweated. ‘ Can’t you do anything for me. Sir ? ’ he im- 
plored. I was afraid I could not, and though I felt pretty 
sure that he’d be let out of durance vile in about half- 


94 : 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


an-hour, I didn’t tell him so. However, as he and his 
escort were going off, another thought dawned upon 
me. ‘Are you a Mason?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ said he. 
‘ Then take the tip and make yourself known. I’m not 
one myself, but I know the fraternity is pretty thick 
here. Ta ta.’ Now the Freemasons of Mahon are 
the Halt, the Shoemaker, and the Discontented, and 
they are banded together solely because they are ‘ Agin ’ 
the Government ’ ; and so, with our luck at its pres- 
ent premium, if they don’t assist to keep Weems laid 
by the heels longer than otherwise would be the case. 
I’m a Deutcheman.” 

“ Poor devil,” said I. “ What a state of mind he’ll 
be in ! ” 

“ ’T won’t kill anybody, and it’ll do him good. Be- 
sides, he thoroughly deserved twice as much as he’s 
got.” 

“ That’s a fact, and I must say you’ve paid the 
score, cutely.” 

Haigh grinned. “ I’ve Irish blood in me, old chap- 
pie,” said he, “and that means a natural taste for 
amateur conspiracy and general devilment. But don’t 
let’s stay jawing here any longer. We’re both due for 
a good jaunt ashore, and there’s a bran-new tick here 
to guarantee us every mortal thing (bar one) which we 
want. And for that one, which is almost always a 
ready-money commodity, it will do us good to wait till 
we’ve tapped the late Blessed Eaymond’s bank.” 


VIII. 

TWO EVEJ^II^GS. 

For a rapid short-lived acquaintanceship, above all 
other animals upon this terrestrial sphere, commend 
me to the Continental drummer. To commence, he 
is always easy to chum with quickly, and always ready 
to make the first advances. He is a salted traveller. 
He knows what is the best of everything, how to get 
it, and moreover how to get it cheaply. He never 
plagues you with “ shop,” or second-hand guide-book 
extracts, or sentiment about scenery and sunsets. 
Cheeriness and hons mots are part of his stock-in- 
trade : brazen good-fellowship is his strong specialty. 

Haigli and I went up to our hotel, asked for a 
bedroom, and in Spanish style got a suite of apart- 
ments. We were just in time for dinner, and, having 
arrived en prince in our own vessel, were going to be 
billeted amongst the habitues of the place, garrison 
soldiers, petty “ proprietors,” and priests, who sat round 
the superior table in the big room. There we should 
have been in company that was vastly respectable and 


96 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


prodigiously slow. But nearer the street entrance 
was another smaller room occupied chiefly by the com- 
mercial fraternity, and thither we went, the landlord 
fully comprehending our taste. “ Gentlemen do like to 
have a bit of a fling to rub away the salt, don’t the}", 
Seflores ? ” said he. 

There is no shyness about the drummer. Before 
we had eaten our preliminary olive, the fat man at 
the end of the table had struck up conversation with 
Haigh ; and before the sopa was out of the room, my 
next-door neighbour, a dapper Marseillais in the ready- 
made clothing line, was calling me amigo. Whilst he 
helped himself from amongst the red sausages and 
beans and beef and pork and other trifles on the dish 
which held the next course, the fat Cuban sketched 
out a plan for the evening; and as he doused his 
salad with full-flavoured oil, my little Frenchman 
endorsed the proposal of the flaxen-haired timber- 
agent opposite that they should stand treat. And 
while we munched our burnt almonds for dessert, 
some one ordered in a bottle of bad sherry (which, 
being imported, is naturally thought more of than the 
good country wine), and we agreed that we were all 
dear friends, and had known one another intimately 
for a matter of ten years. And then we re-rolled fresh 
cigarettes, got our hats, ^nd went to a cafe^ six of us, 
where we crammed our petits verves with sugar-knobs 
and lighted them, meanwhile drinking bitter black 


TWO EVENINGS. 


9T 


coffee till the blue demon of the brandy should have 
flickered away. You know the style : it’s the usual 
way of beginning. 

After some half-hour’s stay in the cafe we sepa- 
rated, Haigh and the Cuban going off to a dance, 
whilst the little Frenchman carried me off elsewhere. 
He had not defined our destination very clearly, and I 
had not made inquiries, caring little where 1 went; 
but I was a little put out at finding myself, after 
passing a guard of soldiers who stared curiously, and 
going down many flights of steps, in an anarchist’s 
club. 

Perhaps the government of His Most Catholic 
Majesty Alfonzo XIII can hardly be termed paternal ; 
but that was nothing to me. Politics I abhor, and 
anarchistic politics I particularly loathe. But as beat- 
ing an abrupt retreat would have been rude, and as 
unnecessary rudeness is not one of my characteristics, 
I made the best of it, and stayed and looked about 
me. 

One room of the place had been fitted up as a 
kind of chapel with ecclesiastical candles and other 
properties on a table at the further end, with portraits 
of Mazzini, Gambetta, Prim, and other worthies of 
the Eed Kidney on the walls, and with orderly pews 
on either side of the central aisle. In this cellar 
temple a preacher was just winding up a fervid dis- 
course on the comparative merits of melanite and 


98 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


blasting gelatine, as we came np ; and a minute later 
I was being introduced to him. I think he was the 
leanest man I ever came across. He stood good six 
feet high, and couldn’t have weighed more than seven 
stone. You could almost see the bone of his face 
through the thin covering of skin ; and if one might 
judge from the fact that his smart black frock-coat 
fitted like a stocking, it was fair to surmise that he 
was actually proud of his leanness. One got the idea 
that all the nourishment of his body had gone out 
into his long white beard. 

We went out of the general hall into a smaller 
room, where we sat and smoked. 

Taltavull, my new acquaintance, was simply charm- 
ing. Till that night I had thought that an anarchist 
could only attain to his peculiar creed through the 
most comprehensive ignorance; but this man had 
arrived at the result through the diametrically oppo- 
site path. He spoke almost all European languages 
with fluency, and knew Lingua Eranca, Arabic, and 
Sanscrit. I never met anyone so widely read; nor 
was his reading superficial ; and he possessed a mem- 
ory that refused nothing. He could quote verbatim 
page after page of such writers as Schopenhauer, Vol- 
taire, Mazzini. And far better than this he had 
studied men of every grade in the living flesh. What 
his nationality was I couldn’t say, though I should 
guess him as either a Pole or an Italian ; but it is cer- 


TWO EVENINGS. 


99 


tain that he had had the constant entree to places 
where a man of his opinions would presumably be 
looked upon with round-eyed horror. And yet he 
owned to never concealing his views from any man. 
“ The sublime importance of our End, Monsieur Cos- 
patric,” said he, “ justifies any means taken to attain 
it. We are associated with dynamite ? Justly. Dy- 
namite is a deplorable necessity.” 

If Taltavull had merely kept on in this strain, I 
should have put him down as one of those human 
paradoxes a man is bound to meet if he vagabondises 
much, and should have forgotten him and his grue- 
some schemes and ideals by the next day. But he 
touched upon a theme, which in view of the purpose 
which had brought us to Minorca, made me cock my 
ears with a new interest. 

“ It is this dynamite,” he said, “that is at once 
our strongest weakness, and our greatest weapon. 
Were it not for terrorism the official upholders of old 
regimes would crush us out of existence as venomous 
reptiles. For instance, you noticed a guard of sol- 
diers at the door as you came in? At the least 
disturbance down here those men would fire mum- 
chance amongst the throng, and be delighted at the 
chance of doing so. You see our school of thought 
is recognised, and though hated it is respected. 
They, thanks to their dread of certain reprisals, rec- 
ognise the truce so long as we are not engaged in 


100 the llECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 

active and open war against society. This is a great 
advance, Monsieur, is it not ? ” 

I shrugged my shoulders. 

“ You are not in sympathy with us?” 

“ Not in the very least,” I told him frankly. 
“ Your principles are far too explosive for my taste.” 

Taltavull waved a bony hand deprecatingly. “ The 
universal complaint. Monsieur. It is the one great 
drawback to our Cause that we have as yet discovered 
no means of propagating it save only by the Theory 
of Devastation. It is only strong men and, I regret 
to say it, desperate men, who can accept the gospel of 
dynamite. There are teeming millions of others ready 
enough to blow up Society as it is at present consti- 
tuted, but who shrink from the only means we have 
to propose.” 

“ Then in your heart of hearts,” said I, “ you must 
know that you can never succeed.” 

The man smiled. “ If even dynamite were taken 
away from us, I should not despair of success. Mon- 
sieur. With it I am confident : the end is only a 
question of time. But I hope to hasten the consum- 
mation. There is another method, which if attained 
and properly applied, could, I most strongly believe, 
reduce society to one dead and happy level. And, 
Monsieur, I believe the Fates have chosen me to be 
the prime instrument in this matter. I shall invent 
or refind the talisman, and then it will be in my own 


TWO EVENINGS. 


101 


hands to sweep out the grades from all the people 
of the earth and tear down all their laws. Think 
of it ! ” 

“By Jove, Sefior,” said I, “universal anarchy! 
That’s a strong order.” 

“ It is possible, though, and I believe probable. 
With my talisman it can be done. I have thought 
over every tittle of the means through patient years 
of waiting, and I am confident that I, and I alone, 
can uproot all existing institutions when once I have 
this trivial lever.” 

Taltavull was stalking up and down the room like 
a long black spectre. He had forgotten my presence. 
His fanatical schemes enwrapped his mind com- 
pletely. There was a minute’s silence, and then I 
said half jokingly : 

“ They’d make you King of the Anarchists.” 

I must have repeated his thoughts, for he replied 
instantly in a half- whisper, “ They must ” ; but per- 
haps remembering that the admission was a damaging 
one, he stopped in his walk and addressed me with 
folded arms and lowered brow. 

“I beg of you to spare me such jest. Monsieur 
Cospatric. This is the one subject I have at heart ; 
it has occupied my life work ; to it I have surrendered 
fortune, station, everything. Whether or no I look 
for a recompense cannot interest you.” 

“Oh, all right,” said I; “sorry I spoke. Acorn- 


102 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


prehensive ignorance of all brands of politics must be 
my excuse.” 

He stared at me thoughtfully for a minute, and 
then : “ I fear you think me a visionary, Monsieur, or 
even worse, a trifler with men’s lives. If you are 
illiberal you may deem me no better than a common 
murderer. Our need is misunderstood, misrepre- 
sented. But I will not attempt to defend it with you 
now — some other time perhaps. Let me tell you of 
my great hope, and then you will understand how 
little it has to do with the bloody holocausts we are 
so unfortunately associated with.” And then this 
strange creature began to unfold a scheme of policy 
which seemed to me the maddest my ears had ever 
listened to, and yet with cogent method in its mad- 
ness. Briefly, he wanted to produce diamonds in 
huge quantities, and sow them broadcast over the 
globe. As gems they would then be no longer valu- 
ble. Castes would cease to exist. And then govern- 
ments could be stamped out. 

Viewed in the light of after recollection, the whole 
thing seems absurd, even paltry. But as I heard it 
then, declaimed with hot earnest fluency by an en- 
thusiast who had spent long clever years over his case, 
it appeared to prove itself up to the hilt. Of course 
his arguments must have been warped, and his 
premises utterly false ; but so cleverly were they com- 
piled that I could not detect the flaws ; and in spite 


TWO EVENINGS. 


103 


of the outcry of common sense which shouted “Wrong, 
wrong, wrong” at the close of each period, I felt my- 
self agreeing implicitly to every clause. And when at 
length he stopped, exhausted with his own enthusiasm 
and vehemence, I nodded a tacit agreement, and ques- 
tioned nothing. 

“You must wonder,” he went on, after a little 
pause, “ what brings me to use this world-forgotten 
spot as a work place ; why I come to a town where 
there are eight women to one man, to an island whose 
whole energy is not equal to that of the smallest city 
on the continent. Have you heard of Raymond Lully ? 
Yes ? Then you may remember that he was born at 
Miramas in Mallorca, and lived much of his life in 
these Balearic Islands. It was an old journal of his 
that I found in Rome that first gave me the embryo of 
my idea. I went round to Barcelona, and crossed to 

Palma. In the Conde de M ’s library I found in 

other manuscripts mention of the same thing. Beyond 
doubt that queer mixture of a man, missionary, fa- 
natic, quack, what you will, had made diamonds as far 
back as the year 1280. He owned to having stumbled 
across the Recipe accidentally. Like other alchemists 
of his time the transmutation of metals was his aim, 
and the crystallisation of part of his graphite crucible 
was quite a matter of chance ; but it occurred most 
surely ; and he analysed the why and wherefore, and 
wrote down the method of working in a place where 
8 


104 the recipe for diamonds. 

he says it would last for all time unless he chose to 
divulge it.” 

“ Great heavens,” said I, jumping up, “then you’ve 
got it?” 

The anarchist smiled sadly. “I have searched 
and searched and searched, and have had others on 
the quest for me. But so far our efforts have been 
all unsuccessful. I can understand your excitement ” 
— (“ Thank my several stars you can’t,” thought I, 
settling back into my chair)— “ You think my great 
regeneration is already in commencement? You may 
even have had trivial qualms about your own relatives’ 
trinkets? No, Monsieur Cospatric, the time has un- 
fortunately not yet come.” 

“ You cannot expect me to condole with you.” 

“ You say you are a non-combatant, and that is 
better than I could have expected. You English as 
a rule are singularly averse to our propaganda. But 
wait and see how affairs order themselves.” 

“ It will be a long time to wait. I’m afraid you’ll 
never find the Recipe.” 

I had risen to my legs to say good-bye. Taltavull 
gripped my hand in his bony fingers. “You don’t 
know me. Monsieur Cospatric. We anarchists never 
give in. I shall not cease searching for this Recipe 
till I find it, or until I learn for certain that it has 
been destroyed. Buenas noches.” 

“ Good-night,” said I, and went out into the moon- 


TWO EVENINGS. 


105 


light. My little Frenchman had gone long ago, and 
so I strolled alone down the steep cobbled street, con- 
ning over many things. Verily this life is full of 
strange coincidences. 

Haigh was at the hotel. I met him coming out of 
the room vis-a-vis to ours across the passage. We 
went in to our quarters, and sat in wicker-lined rock- 
ing chairs (relic of the time when the Yankee had 
Port Mahon for a rendezvous), and he told me many 
things. “ But,” he concluded, “ it was the music that 
drove me out. Those dark-eyed factory girls were just 
fine, and la marguerita as a dance was an addition I 
couldn’t stand at any price. It was something too 
ghastly for words. All the brass sharp and the strings 
screechy. So I just skipped, came back here, and 
foregathered with a lone lorn Englishman on his first 
trans-Channel trip. He was a splendid find. Need- 
less to say he’s going to write a book about his travels, 
and as he seemed eager for information, I gave him a 
lot. Honestly, he’s the most stupendous Juggins its 
ever been my fate to meet ; and that’s putting the 
matter strongly, for since I’ve been — er — on the wan- 
der, I’ve come across most brands of fool.” 

“ What manner of man is he to look at?” 

“ Oh, middle height, tweeds and cap all to match 
and new for the trip, big brown eyes that look at you 
dreamily, and rather Jewish face. Not a bad-looking 
chap by any means, but oh, such a particularly ver- 


106 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


dant sort of greenhorn. The only one point on which 
he showed a single grain of sense was in refusing to 
play poker with me. He didn’t want to offend me ; 
he hoped most sincerely that I should take no offence, 
but a friend had extracted a promise from him before 
he left home to play no card games with strangers. 
The fact was he was really so unskilful with cards. I 
w^asn’t offended, was I ? His candour was so refresh- 
ing that I could truthfully say I was not.” 

I tried to talk about my evening ; but Haigh 
would not listen. Said he : “ I’m not interested in 
that particular kind of nonsense. If you haven’t em- 
braced the glorious principles of anarchy, old chappie, 
that’s enough to tell. You’ve met a wise man who’s 
a damned fool, and I’ve met a fool who, in points, is a 
wise man ; and I prefer my own find. If you’d heard 
him talking about his book that is to be you’d have 
stood good chance of choking with suppressed emo- 
tion. It’s going to turn out a great success. He will 
spend quite three weeks here and in Mallorca so as to 
‘ do ’ both islands thoroughly. And then he would like 
to go to Ivi9a, but didn’t know whether it was advis- 
able to risk it. Could I advise him? Were the people 
there very savage? Oh my Juggins, my Juggins, yon 
were something too delicious for words when you got 
on that tack, evidently wanting authentic adventures 
to be enlarged upon for the great work, and obviously 
fearing most tremendously to encounter the same. 


TWO EVENINGS. 


107 


You won’t go to Ivicja, I can see that ; but I’d bet all 
I’m worth that the chapter on 3fy Adventure with 
the Brigands will appear with full detail. I’ve a bit 
of imagination myself, and I guess I gave you enough 
subject-matter to fudge it from most thrillingly.” 

“ Hard lines to stuff the poor wretch too much.” 

“ Not a bit of it, dear boy. The great stay-at- 
home B. P. will swallow the yarn chapter and verse, 
and know for certain that poor harmless Ivi^a is a 
den of robbers; Juggins will believe it all, smoke, 
flash, and report, after he has retailed it twice, and 
will pose as a hero ; and I, I’ve had my amusement. 
You should hear him talk about the illustrations, too. 
He can’t draw or paint ; hasn’t a notion of either. 
And he’s never taken a photograph. But a friend 
advised him to get a hand camera of the ‘ Absolutely 
Simple ’ pattern, and he’s been exposing plates right 
and left. A pro.’s to develop them when he gets 
home if he can succeed in passing them through the 
Customs, and if he doesn’t get the thing confiscated 
for getting pictures of fortresses, both of which (he 
informs me) are mighty and great dangers. And, by 
the way, that reminds me. He got spilt off a donkey 
this afternoon, and damaged his nose and jolted up 
the camera. Being blissfully ignorant of the picture- 
machine’s mechanisms he doesn’t like to meddle with 
it, but ‘ I’m afraid something’s gone inside, Mr. Haigh, 
because it rattles when I shake it.’ So thinking I 


108 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


owed the chap something for the fun I’d had out of 
him, I said I’d get you to fix it up for him. You’ve 
been bottlewasher to a photographer for a bit, haven’t 
you ? ” 

“ Something in that line, but I’ve no tackle here.” 

“ Oh, that’s all right. Here’s his dark room lamp, 
and the shutters to this room are solid. They’ll keep 
out the moonlight.” 

We swung- to the coverings over the windows, and 
put a lighted candle behind the sherry-glass shade, 
and then I took the little camera out of its leather 
case. It was a cheap quarter-plate and the jar had 
started up two of the angles. 

“ The rest of the illustrations for that book will 
have to wait till this is coopered up,” said I. 

“Are the plate- things inside spoiled?” Haigh 
asked. 

“No, they’re all right so far as exposure to light 
goes. However, I’ll look. Phew! what a mess! 
Every blessed one smashed except the last couple. 
Your man will have to go over his ground again to 
replace these.” 

“What’s that contrivance?” asked Haigh, who 
was peering over my shoulder. 

“ A spare dark-slide to use instead of the big plate 
holder. Empty. Look, I’ll put the two sound plates 
in there, and you can tell the Juggins that he can put 
those in his pocket and take the rest to a photographer 


TWO EVENINGS. 


109 


man to get mended. Not that I expect that anyone 
can do it here. But he can try.” 

“ All right, thanks. It’ll be rather a blow to him, 
but I must break it gently. Well, ta ta, good-night. 
I think you’ll own I’ve picked up most amusement for 
this evening ? ” 


IX. 

TALAITI DE TALT. 

I WOKE with daylight, and roused Haigh. “We 
should get away at once,” I said to him. “We’ve 
dawdled woefully. If we’d possessed a grain of sense 
between us we should have started the moment we 
stepped ashore. Weems may be cooped up still, but 
that’s only guess work on our parts. It’s quite pos- 
sible he cleared himself directly after you left, and 
went to the Talayot straight away.” 

Haigh blinked at me sleepily. “ You’re in the 
deuce of a flurry, old man. Been having evil dreams ? 
That’s the rancid oil they cook with here. It always 
has that effect at first. But you’ll get used to it soon, 
and like it, and think ordinary oil insipid.” 

“ Oh, confound you, dry up. Look here, we must 
start at once.” 

“ How?” 

“ Tramp it. Funds won’t run to a vehicle.” 

“ My dear chappie, you don’t know the extent of 
my feebleness. I couldn’t walk two miles to save my 
life. Nature may have intended me for a pirate or a 


TALAITI DE TALT. 


Ill 


highwayman, because on shipboard or horseback I can 
do tolerable service. But the good Dame never built 
me to be a footpad. So if this old pyramid place is to 
be looted, you must go and do it yourself.” 

“ But, my good fellow, think what there is at stake. 
Dash it all, man, how do you know I sha’n’t collar the 
thing and make a clean bolt with it?” 

Haigh grinned. “ I’ll take my chance of that.” 

“You’d better not. I’ve never set up for being 
obtrusively honest.” 

“ Oh, go to Aden.” 

“ But really, I’d take it as a favour if you would 
come.” 

“ Well, if you make a point of it, I suppose I must, 
though I fail to see the necessity for a pair of us 
making ourselves uncomfortable. Look out of win- 
dow. The sky’s Prussian blue, and there isn’t a 
breath of wind. It’s going to be a broiling day. 
However, dear boy, at your behest I’ll make a martyr 
of myself, and if transport is to be procured on tick, 
I’ll overhaul you. Only understand clearly that 
neither for you nor anyone else can I do a physical 
impossibility. It is absolutely out of the question for 
me to walk.” 

That was all I could get out of him, and so I set 
off very uncertain as to whether or no he would 
follow. 

I walked out through the clean uneven streets just 


112 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


as the townspeople were beginning to stir, passed un- 
der the massive towered gateway in the old walls, and 
got on to the level road which reaches half-way across 
the island. The waking hour was earlier here. The 
hawks and eagles were patrolling the morning air 
with diligent sweeps. The country-folk were bring- 
ing in loads of farm-produce on big brown donkeys 
and little grey donkeys. These last all gave a cour- 
teous “ Bon di tenga,” * and I noticed that most of 
them stared at me somewhat curiously. It was not 
my dress that they looked at; it was my face that 
drew their stares ; and after a mile or so’s pacing it 
was borne in upon me that anxious thoughts had 
caused my forehead to knit and my mouth to pucker. 
I made the discovery with some contempt. Haigh 
had told me more than once that I should never make 
a gambler, and he was right. In principle I accepted 
the theory that “ what was written, was written,” but 
in practice I couldn’t help imagining that a ready- 
penned Fate might be partly erased by much rubbing. 

I refilled my pipe and looked around me. Old 
Lully had shown some nous in choosing a country to 
carry his secret. There is small fear of Minorca’s 

* The common salutation throughout the Balearic Islands is 
Bon di tenga from an inferior to a superior, to which the reply 
would be Bon di. Frequently, however, the first of these is 
clipped down to the last word, which is pronounced “ Tmn-ga.” 
After dark it becomes Bon nit, or Bon nit tenga, according to 
social standing. 


TALAITI DE TALT. 


113 


population ever growing excessive. Not even Conne- 
mara can show such stone heaps. The walls which 
divide up the tiny fields are often ten feet thick; 
there are rubble cairns on all the many outcrops of 
rock ; there are boulder-girdles round the trees ; and 
yet, despite these collections, the corn and the beans 
and the grass grow more in stone than soil. One 
almost wonders that the Minorcan does not build up 
stone circles round the cows’ legs whilst they are 
grazing. Perhaps the Doctor Illummatus might have 
hesitated if his prophetic eye had seen an invasion of 
British ; for the Briton is a destructive animal with 
pig-like instincts of rootling up everything. But the 
•foreigner’s tenure of the soil (and stones) was not a 
long one, and I fancy that the country’s face, save for 
some of the better roads that seam it, is much the 
same as it was in the year of our Lord thirteen hun- 
dred and nothing. 

Now the Minorcan is not possessed of the slender- 
est reverence for the prehistoric monuments that spot 
his island, and if he wanted them for domestic pur- 
poses, he would not hesitate to take the top from a 
duolithic stone altar, or the roofing flags from a sub- 
terranean gallery. And he would quarry from the 
pyramids to find the wherewithal for his pig-yard gate- 
posts, without the smallest flush of shame, for Vandal- 
ism is a word that has no Minorquin equivalent. But 
the abundance of stone elsewhere has saved the fash- 


114 THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 

ioned stone that those dead races piled up when this 
world was young, and the grey Talayots squat upon 
their old sites in undiminished numbers. Indeed, in 
a way, one might say that there are more of them now 
than there were in the Venerable Alchemist’s time, for 
spurious Talayots may be seen in every direction. 
These latter-day edifices have one advantage over the 
hoary prototypes. Their purpose is clearly defined. 
We know that they were not intended for the burial- 
places of kings, or for temples to conceal sacerdotal 
rights, or for observatories, or even for granaries. 
They were simply run up by men who wanted to 
build shelters for cattle or pigs or sheep on some plan 
which would expend a maximum of material on a 
minimum of basement. They simply represent an 
incident in the perpetual War against the Stones, and 
show the way in which crude minds attain their ends. 
If Minorca had been peopled by Americans (as once, 
indeed, nearly happened) light tramways would be 
laid down in every direction and the stones carted to 
the edges of the island, and there tipped into the sea ; 
and then the ground would be free, the farmer rich 
and unhappy. But as matters are ordered at present, 
these things are beyond the man of the soil’s grasp ; 
and so ho remains poor, and hard-working, and con- 
tented. 

The broad road led on past whitewashed farm- 
houses and pink-flowered almond gardens, past peas- 


TALAITI DE TALT. 


115 


ants and mule-teams scratching up the rocky soil 
with primitive one-handled ploughs, past patches of 
brown vine-stumps, and gnarled olive-trees squirming 
out from among the boulders ; and close on either 
hand ran the low wooded hills with their burden of 
ilexes still filmy with the morning mists. The road 
was a road a London suburb might have felt pride in, 
so smart was the engineering that made cuttings and 
embankments to reduce the gradients, and culverts to 
carry off the side- water, and dressed free-stone bridges 
to cross the many streamlets. But at the eighth kilo- 
metre post (I think it was the eighth) this road showed 
itself worthy of the sunny government of Spain by 
ending abruptly in a fence of wheelbarrows and gang- 
planks. The continuation was to be gone on with, 
maiiana : meanwhile young wheat had sprouted eiglit 
green inches in the track. 

At this point the diligence course to Cindadella 
branches off to the northward, turning again after 
awhile due west on to General Stanhope’s road. But 
that was nothing to me then. Turning my back upon 
it, I took another path, in woeful disrepair, which led 
me down by many windings between high stone walls 
and straggling clumps of prickly pear. There were 
few houses to stop the view — only some two or three 
farm buildings. Cottages can scarcely be said to ex- 
ist. The labourer either lives in the towns, or else he 
lodges under his master’s roof. But the high walls 


116 * THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 

and the hummocks shut one in, and I was perpetually 
having to climb one or the other to make sure of my 
whereabouts, for my sailing directions to the Talayot 
had been rather vague ones. 

The air was still and close, and already the sun had 
crept high, and was burning fiercely. It was blazing 
hot, but in spite of that, and the ruggedness of the 
track, I was walking my fastest. Talaiti de Talt was 
somewhere close ahead, and the knowledge made me 
tingle from ear to toe. Forced stoicism wouldn’t act. 

At last getting on a rise of the road where I could 
see over the winding walls ahead, I made out a Talayot 
sprouting grey from amid it’s green jacketing, barely 
half a kilometre away ; and from the description given 
at Mahon, that must be the very one I had worked so 
hard to reach. 

The limit of self-containment was passed. Excite- 
ment bubbled over. I picked up my feet and ran for 
all I was worth. 

Just past the bottom of the slope was a small farm- 
house, lying a little way back from the road. The 
Talayot was close beyond. A thought struck me, and 
I pulled up panting, and, in spite of myself, laughing. 
A new complication seemed to crop up. From the 
moment of reading old Lully’s journal in the Genovese 
caffe till then, it had never occurred to me that the 
Talayot belonged less to me than to anybody else. 
Now, seeing the whitewashed farm buildings close be- 


TALAITI DE TALT. 


117 


side this old pyramid I had come to loot, the idea that 
the modern owner might raise objections came upon 
me in a flash ; and although the matter was serious 
enough, as Heaven knows, still its grimly humorous 
side cropped uppermost, and for the life of me I could 
not help being tickled. 

Of course 'anyone will see that I might have waited 
till dark and have done my searching when all the 
world of provincial Minorca was snugly slumbering. 
But that idea did not occur to me then, and if it had 
done, I should not have listened to it. I was far too 
keen on going ahead without further stoppages. The 
grasping fingers of Weems loomed always in the near 
distance. 

If I had only possessed a spare dollar or two the 
thing would have been simple, but not owning a 
peseta, I had tremors. Still there was no help for it, 
and so following the en avant principle, I swung the 
gate, and walked up between the orange-bushes to the 
little farmhouse. Two dogs sprang out from some- 
where, barking furiously ; but I like dogs and never 
feared one yet, and that pair were soon reduced to op- 
pressive civility. A small girl appeared, drawn by the 
uproar; but the sight of a stranger made her bolt 
mutely within doors. And then a woman came, a fat, 
tall, slatternly woman, whose husband was dead (she 
said) and who owned the farm which circled Talaiti 
de Talt. 


118 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


She was garrulous to a degree, and her voice — as is 
usual with the voices of cats and women out there — 
was harsh and grating. But I did not dam the flood 
of her eloquence (outwardly, at any rate) and so she 
went on till she was tired. Then I thanked her, and 
blarneyed her as well as I was able, although that 
wasn’t much, as I never have been much of a hand wiih 
women. But the outcome of it all was that I might 
most certainly overhaul the old stone heap (which was 
her irreverent name for the historical pyramid) as 
much as ever I chose. And when she had given the 
permission it struck me that I could have got it just 
as easily without having spent an hour and a half in 
the baking sun-blaze beating about the bush. But 
then, you see, I was so confoundedly nervous and 
didn’t guess that beforehand. 

However, as I was turning off down the orange 
grove again, the bulky Senora seemed to think that 
something might be made out of it after all, for she 
called out to know whether I wouldn’t like Isabelita 
to accompany me — Isabelita being the small girl, then 
engaged at unravelling a bamboo for a whitewash 
brush under the shade of the family date-palm. Or 
was there nothing else she could do for me ? Every- 
thing of her poor stock was entirely at my disposition. 
My thanks were profuse— most profuse — but I would 
not rob her of anything ; not even of the liermosita's 
time. It would be my great pleasure to make that 


TALAITI DE TALT. 


119 


little angel some trifling present as I came back that 
way toward Mahon ; at which time I might also wish 
to buy an orange or two. So until then. 

“ ^Tenga^^ said the woman, with a large fat smile. 

“ Bon di^ Beflora^'' said I with a sweep of the hat, 
and turned off down the path and into the road 
again. Gad ! wasn’t I feeling jubilant then? 

I felt that the woman was following me with her 
eyes, and didn’t dare to hurry ; for it seemed to me, 
so worked up was I, that if I had broken into a run 
she would have seen at once what I had come for, and 
would have contrived to get this great thing for her- 
self. The mere fact of my displaying any interest at 
all in such a useless cumbersome hulk as a Talayot, 
must have filled her with suspicion. But then I had 
thought of this, and had corrected her when she 
guessed me for French, telling her my true nation- 
ality, knowing that the Continental reputation of the 
Englishman stands good for any unexplainable eccen- 
tricity. And so I clogged my feet with an effort, and 
walked on soberly looking ahead of me. 

So great was the maze of walls that it was difficult 
to tell where the road ran for more than a score or so 
of yards ahead. But at last I traced its sweep close 
by where a great single- slab altar stood on its massive 
pillar, with a sacred stone-circle jutting out of the 
bushes around it. On the other side was the pyra- 
mid, sorely broken by man and the weather, but still 


120 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


showing dressed grey stone courses in patches amongst 
the rank scrub which bristled over it. Even from 
there I could make out that the general contour of 
its base was circular, and not square as I had some- 
how or other expected, and I began to see trouble 
in finding that side “ nearest the sea ” where Lully 
had dug into the entrance-way. 

As I drew nearer, the tumbled nature of the stone- 
work disclosed itself further, and I began to have 
fears lest the central chamber should have caved in 
and hidden the Eecipe effectually and for always by 
crumbling its lettering into dust. But then I called 
to mind other Talayots I had seen before near Mahon, 
and Alayor, and Mercadal, and Cindadella, where the 
entering passage led from above-ground by a rapid 
incline, and where the cavity, when it existed, had 
doubtless been near the apex ; and from this I took 
heart, thinking that whether or no there had been a 
chamber in the upper part of the building, and 
whether or no it existed still, didn’t particularly 
matter to me. The Diary had certainly pointed to 
a room stowed away beneath the very keel of the 
edifice ; and as long as that stood firm, the rest might 
telescope to any extent for all I cared. 

By this time my leisurely pace had brought me 
up alongside the Talayot, which loomed big and squat 
at the other side of the wall. I turned and looked 
behind me. The fat woman at the farm was out of 


TALAITI DE TALT. 


121 


sight. Then I climbed the wall, and from the top 
glanced down the road which led from Cindadella, 
and saw a sight which made me curse like a kicked 
arriero. Walking briskly up the stony track was a 
little man in unmistakably British tweeds. “ An in- 
fernal prying tourist,” thought I, “ by all the powers 
of evil. Bear-led by a native, and coming to see 
Talaiti de Talt for a thousand. If he sees me he’ll 
spot me at once and want to chum, and then he’ll get 
inquisitive and won’t go away.” 

Down I dropped into cover. 


X. 


WITH A THREE-AKGLED HOE. 

It is curious how no two people can speak the 
same words with identical intonation. Perhaps this 
is noticeable to some men more than to others. I 
know some folks never forget a face, others a walk ; 
but for myself, though these things may pass from 
memory, a voice once heard never escapes me. I sup- 
pose it is because I have been at much pains to dis- 
tinguish between sounds. I’m rather musical, you 
know. 

And so as I lay squatted there beneath a sloe-bush, 
and the tones of a voice grating as those of the corn- 
crake came to me through the chinks in the wall, I 
knew that Weems was at large once more, and press- 
ing on with his errand. 

I might have expected him, and yet his arrival 
was a bit of a surprise ; and on the spur of the mo- 
ment I could not for the life of me think what was 
best to do. One couldn’t nobble the man, and still I 
didn’t intend that he should read that Recipe. So, 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 123 

being unable to make up my mind to any other course 
of proceeding, I just cowered quietly where I was, 
and awaited developments. As it turned out, these 
were not very long in coming. W epms had lifted up 
his voice to get rid of his guide, and the guide, in 
eloquent Minorquin, was refusing to understand. At 
last the schoolmaster, in desperation, translating his 
arguments into silver, called to mind a word from 
some American novel, and commanded his attendant 
to “Vamose.” Then the native poured out thanks, 
pocketed the cash after a great show of refusing it, 
and went; and Weems, waiting till he was out of 
sight, climbed the wall. He was a bit chary of step- 
ping down amongst the prickly scrub on the inner 
side, and so as he was taking his time about it, I stood 
up and watched him. He did not see me till he was 
firm on his feet again ; but when he did slew round, 
he stepped back with a gasp as though some one had 
rammed a sail-needle into him. 

However, he pulled himself together quickly enough 
— I give him credit for that — and slipped a hand into 
his coat pocket, which I noted was bulging with some 
heavy weight — presumably a pistol. Then he resorted 
to what I suppose he considered diplomacy, and re- 
marked that it was a lovely country. 

“ Damn you,” said I, “ you didn’t come here to 
talk to me about scenery, did you ? Because if that’s 
the case, I’d rather you’d quit for awhile. I’ve got 


124 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


some business on band here that I want to work out 
alone. So git, you mean little brute.” 

“And I also have a trifling piece of research to 
make for which I desire complete privacy. And this, 
Mr. Cospatric, is a point upon which I am prepared 
to insist.” 

Hereupon out came the revolver, a cheap pin-fire 
tool, brilliantly nickel -plated. Weems fingered it with 
unholy awe, and his face began to bleach. He wasn’t 
used to the situation. 

“Did you get that thing in Marseilles?” I asked. 

“ No, Sir. I procured it from an acquaintance in 
Mahon this morning. And acting upon his advice I 
shall not hesitate to use it if you press me.” 

The little man’s manner as he struggled between 
dignity, greediness, and common funk was so irresis- 
tibly funny that I roared. 

“ You need not fear my failing to be as good as my 
word,” he snapped out. “ They don’t hang people in 
Spain.” 

“You fool, of course they don’t. They garrote. 
And as the inhabitants of these islands, take them as 
a whole, are as mild and peaceable a lot as one could 
find on the face of the globe, a bit of murder would 
strike them as being in such bad taste that you’d wear 
the iron collar as sure as you’d earned it. But that’s 
not the point. You’re not going to shoot me — ” 

“ Then you will go away.” 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 


125 


“ I shall do nothing of the kind. You are not go- 
ing to shoot me, simply because you can’t. Man alive, 
I’ve been racketting about the evil places of this world 
ever since I left Cambridge, and this isn’t the first 
time I’ve looked down the small end of a pistol. If 
you’d seen as much shooting as I have, you’d just 
jump with astonishment at the awful big percentage 
of men who get missed even by good shots, and at 
short rise. And you! You, you small swab, I can 
see by the "way you’re holding it that you’ve never had 
a revolver in your fist before this day, much less fired 
one at a live mark. Put the thing back in your 
pocket, and behave like a rational being.” 

“ I shall do nothing of the kind,” said Weems, put- 
ting up his left arm, and sighting the pistol over the 
elbow-joint. 

By this time he had got into such a pitiable funk, 
that I was afraid lest out of sheer nervousness his fin- 
ger might press home the trigger any minute. The 
chances were big against his hitting me, but I knew 
that the report would bring spectators, and those I 
most particularly didn’t want. Still I could not see 
any means of getting the weapon into my own hands 
without its going off. It was impossible to “ rush ” 
him. The dozen yards which separated us was one 
solid tangle of scrub-bushes interwoven with bram- 
bles. It would have taken at least forty seconds to 
tear through them, and in that time he could most 


126 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


assuredly snap off all six chambers, however big a 
duffer he might be. This would bring up some of the 
country people without fail ; and besides, out of the 
six, he might fluke one shot into me. About that last 
possibility I didn’t trouble my head much, as it was 
remote ; but the other was a fatal objection. A good 
satisfactory row with the natives would effectually up- 
set the apple-cart for both of us. 

So I put it to him squarely that come what might 
I didn’t intend to go and leave the coast clear for 
him ; and that if he fired a shot, whether or not he 
jugged me and tasted el gar rote into the bargain, he 
would most assuredly not get hold of the Recipe. 

These points seemed to strike him as strong ones ; 
and as, being unused to such strong emotions, he was 
by this time in very nearly a fainting condition, he 
saw fit to ease the strain from his nerves by beginning 
to treat for terms. How much would I go for ? He 
had bills in his pockets for francs and pesetas, which 
amounted in all to eighteen pounds, four shillings, 
and some odd pence English. That was the absolute 
sum-total of all he possessed out of England. If he 
handed it over, would I promise to depart forthwith ? 

I think it caused him no real surprise to learn that 
I would do nothing of the kind. 

“ Look here,” he went on, “ I’ll tell you what I’ll do 
as well. I’ll send you a ten-pound note from England 
when I get back there, if you’ll give me your address.” 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 


127 


“ Oh, go to the devil ! ” said I, beginning to get 
in a fury with him. “ If you’re on for bargaining I’ll 
give you my bill for five hundred at two months to 
clear out.” 

“ You can’t expect it, Mr. Cospatric — ” 

“ Of course I can’t expect you to sell your chances 
for a mess of pottage ; still less need you have thought 
me idiot enough to do such a thing. Now look here, 
you are new at the scrapping game, whereas I am not 
by any means. So in case of a tussle the odds are big 
that you’ll finish underside. And, besides, if you 
have a bit of a whip-hand over me, I’d have you re- 
member that until I’ve got my terms you are stand- 
ing under a Damocles arrangement which may tum- 
ble on your hat at any moment. And it doesn’t take 
much of a wizard to tell that your nerves aren’t good 
to stand that strain for over long.” 

“ The heat — ” 

“ Oh, yes, the heat’s making you sweat streams, 
and sending your face chalky-green, and setting your 
knees to play castanetas in cachuclia time. We’ll call 
it the heat. Anyway, it’s exposure to an atmosphere 
that you aren’t accustomed to, and it doesn’t suit you. 
You’d better try a change, or else you’ll topple off in 
a faint— perhaps you’ll die. Now look here : it’s just 
foolery to let this Dog-in-the-Manger Company hold 
the stage any longer. Let’s re-cast it, and play ‘ The 
Partners.’ Come, what do you say? It’s only a 


128 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


three-part piece, and there’s a thumping good treas- 
ury to draw upon.” 

“Three parts!” shrieked Weems, lifting up his 
pistol on to his elbow again, where it gleamed like a 
dancing mirror in the hot sunshine. Then as another 
thought struck him, he lowered the weapon to his 
side once more, and broke out into the ghost of a 
smile. “ Oh I see. Yes, of course. Two for me, Mr. 
Cospatric, and one for you. That’s much more right 
and proper.” 

I chuckled, and mentioned that one Haigh and 
myself were going shares over this matter, and that I 
didn’t intend to see Haigh defrauded : and then the 
battle of words began over again. 

By this time I was so thoroughly sick of the brute’s 
meanness that I made up my mind stubbornly not to 
give way a single peg. He argued, he prayed, he com- 
manded, he threatened ; he appealed to all my better 
feelings individually and then collectively ; but it was 
no good. All that he could get out of me was an as- 
surance that he might feel himself very lucky if he 
fingered the proffered third, and a threat that if he 
didn’t accept it quickly he’d find himself empty-fin- 
gered altogether — and probably minus a sound verte- 
bral column into the bargain. And in the end he 
sobbed out an agreement to the terms, and then 
flopped down amongst the bushes, deadly sick. 

This last development I was not altogether unpre- 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 


129 


pared for, and, had it seemed good to me to do so, I 
might have taken advantage of his plight to grab the 
nickel-plated weapon, and repudiate the treaty — as he 
most assuredly would have done by me had the po- 
sitions been reversed. But over-reaching that kind — 
euphemistically termed “ keen business instinct ” by 
some — has never been among my catalogue of acquire- 
ments (more’s the pity) ; and so I just hung round till 
he had disburdened his stomach and re-collected his 
wits a hit, forbearing to interfere either by word or 
deed. 

“ It’s the heat,” he explained at last. 

“We’ll log it down as such,” said I, to prevent 
argument, “ and for God’s sake don’t let us squabble 
any more. If you’re right again we may as well turn- 
to and get at the cache without further dawdling. You 
have a spade, I suppose ? ” 

“A spade! oh dear, oh dear; what an oversight. 
If you’ll believe me, Mr. Cospatric, I never remem- 
bered that digging implements would be required till 
this moment. The excitement of the last few days — 
But don’t let us speak of that now. We must use 
your spade in turn.” 

I laughed. “ It strikes me we’re a pair of first- 
class fools. I haven’t got one either. We both put 
out from Mahon in such a flaming hurry that acces- 
sories never got a thought. Well, w^e must get one 
here if we can, though that’s doubtful, seeing that the 


130 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


native hoe, which is pick and shovel combined, is the 
popular instrument hereabouts. However, I’ll go and 
see if something can’t he got. Give me a couple of 
pesetas, will you ? ” 

“ What for?” 

“ Why, to hire the thing, or buy it if needs must.” 

“ But why should I pay — ” 

“ Damnation man, because I don’t own a brown 
cent. Go scout for a tool yourself if you care to. I’m 
not keen on the Job. Only you don’t speak the 
language, and I thought you’d prefer to sit still and 
recruit a bit more before beginning to bustle about 
again.” 

“ Oh I beg pardon,” said he, and counted out the 
money in copper and small silver. 

I turned to the Talayot, and climbed to its top. 
Two fields off, towards clustered Mercadal, a man was 
guiding a single-handed plough drawn by a small ox 
and a sixteen-hand mule. Scrambling down again, I 
went in a bee-line across the intervening walls. The 
ploughman saw me coming, and nothing loath, pulled 
up his team and desisted from scratching the furrow 
any further. A chat was just the thing he wanted. 

I could not get clear of him for a good half-hour, 
and in the end was only able to raise what I expected, 
to wit, a broad-bladed triangular hoe with a short 
crooked handle. However, as we did not propose to 
go in for any systematic navvying, and as there was 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 


131 


nothing better to be got, back I went with it, and 
found Weems quite alive again and on the prowl for 
what he could find. 

“ The soil has been turned up here in places,” said 
he, pointing, “ and this is just the side where accord- 
ing to Lully’s diary the entrance passage lies. And if 
you notice there are other patches rooted up yonder, 
and again yonder.” 

“ Pigs,” said I. “ This island’s celebrated for 
them, and so is Mallorca. Black elegant well-to-do 
swine that are exported to Spain in steamer-loads. 
They’re the most celebrated breed of porkers in 
Europe. But never mind them now. Which do you 
spot as our point of commencement ? ” 

“ Somewhere between where we are standing and 
that palm-bush.” 

“Very well then. We’ll set to work at the other 
side of this fallen wall-stone ; and here goes for the 
first drive.” 

For awhile we took spell and spell about at the 
hoe, working like fiends. I had stripped to the vest 
at the first set-off, and by degrees Weems let his eager- 
ness overpower dignity till he had discarded a similar 
number of garments. There was not a breath of air 
stirring, and the sunbeams poured down upon us in a 
brazen stream. Being used to hard work, I naturally 
could do the larger share ; but to give the little school- 
master his due, he did stick to it for all he was worth ; 


132 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


and though he did drop more than one hint that such 
physical toil was degrading to a man in his station, he 
didn’t try to shirk doing his just portion. 

The ground was desperately hard to get through. 
There was very little soil. What we came across 
chiefly were stones fallen from the sides of the Talayot 
woven together by a network of roots. Over these we 
hacked and sweated and strained, and tore our hands 
and wrenched our sinews. And by degrees the' heap 
of big stones and smaller stones, and rubble, and 
earth, and other debris grew larger amongst the 
bushes, and our jagged pit sank deeper. 

Those hours were the only ones in which I ever 
felt the smallest respect for Weems. He hadn’t 
chucked away his Bless-you-I-know-best-sir, by any 
means. For instance, scorning example, he plucked 
a prickly pear off a clump that grew out of the Tala- 
yot and sucked the pulp out of the skin in spite of 
seeing me devour one in other fashion. And then he 
complained of the damnableness of a needle-sown 
palate. Also he persisted in following his own theo- 
ries about the extraction of the large stones, although 
these seldom came off. But he stuck at work like a 
Trojan, and one can’t help having some respect for a 
man who keeps his thews in action. 

Whilst the white sun burned to overhead, and 
whilst it fell half-way to the water again, did we hack 
and grovel and wrench, till our pit was well-nigh 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 


133 


twelve feet deep, and we were beginning to have dis- 
mal forebodings that we were either delving in the 
wrong place, or that Raymond the Philosopher had 
lied most unkindly. But at last, when we were both 
nearly sick with weariness and growing disgust, we 
came upon a flat stone which rang hollow when the 
hoe struck it ; and in an instant our hopes sprang to 
a feverish height again. 

Weems tugged at the edges of the stone, scream- 
ing and swearing in his excitement ; but it had lain 
in that bed for many ages and would not budge for 
such puny efforts as his. From the lip of the pit I 
was bawling at him to come up out of the way ; but 
not until he had strained himself well-nigh senseless 
would he unlock his Angers from their grip ; and even 
then he would not voluntarily resign his place. But 
I could not wait. Sliding down into the pit I hoisted 
him on to my shoulder and gave an upward heave, 
and then turned- to with the hoe, battering savagely. 

The flagstone was of granite, and I doubled up my 
weapon, but scarcely splintered the hard surface. So 
the edges had to be dug round laboriously ; and even 
then, when thoroughly loose, the weight was so great 
that I could scarcely lift it. But at last the great slab 
was heaved up on edge, and below there lay a hole 
whose blackness almost choked the falling sunbeams. 
The sight of it— or the wet earthy smell which came 
through — somehow made me shiver. 


134 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


1 looked up. Weems was craning over the edge of 
the pit, his eyes goggling, and lips drawn hack from 
his clenched teeth. He looked unpleasant, to say the 
least of it, and a thought dangerous as well. There 
was a bit of the wild beast peeping out some- 
where. 

“ Come along,” said I. 

“ How can we see ? ” 

“ Oh, I forgot that. Feel for matches in my coat 
pocket.” 

“I’ve better than matches. A candle: what do 
you say to that ? ” 

Still he stayed glowering at me. 

“ Well, why the devil don’t you go and get them, 
man ? ” I asked. 

“ Oh, yes, to be sure,” said he, and disappeared. 

“You’ll go mad, my son,” thought I, “if your 
delicate nerves are kept under this strain much long- 
er,” and leaned back panting against the side. The 
fellow seemed to take a long time hunting for what 
he wanted, but at last I heard the sound of his foot- 
steps and looked up. 

Lucky for me I did look up then too, for my eye 
caught a glint of the hot sunshine as it was reflected 
off some bright surface, and with the inspiration of 
the moment I stepped into the opening at my feet 
and fell noisily through amid a small avalanche of 
rubble. Picking myself up, I looked out from the 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 


135 


darkness, and saw, as I expected, Weems standing at 
the brink above nervously fingering the nickel-plated 
revolver. 

“ What have you got that blasted thing for ? ” I 
sang out. 

“ Oh you see — er — there’s no knowing what one 
might meet with down there — er — and it’s well to be 
ready — er — in case — ” 

“ You lying little viper.” 

“ Oh I assure you — ” 

“ Thanks, I want none of your assurances. But 
I’ll give you one. If you put a foot below here I’ll 
cave in your head with this hoe.” 

Then he began to whine ; and then, as I was stub- 
born, he swore to shoot me as I came out, which I be- 
lieved him quite capable of doing; and so matters 
were again at a deadlock. 

“Very well,” said I at last. “As I won’t trust you 
an inch beyond my sight, heave that revolver down 
first, and then I won’t touch you. If you stick to it I 
know you’ll try to make cold meat of me in the hopes 
I sha’n’t be found down here.” 

“ But you might shoot me, Mr. Cospatric — by ac- 
cident, of course.” 

“ Make your dirty little soul comfortable on that 
score. If I wanted to be quit of you I’ve got ten fin- 
gers quite capable of squeezing the life out of your 
miserable carcass.” 

10 


136 THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 

“ Still I think I’ll unload it first if you don’t 
mind.” 

“ Go ahead,” said I, “ if it amuses you.” And out 
came the cartridges one by one and then the weapon 
was tossed down to me. One hard grip on the barrel 
and another on the stock, a good strong pressure, of 
the wrists together, and that gaudy little weapon was 
effectually spiked. 

“ 1 may come in safety now ? ” asked Weems, after 
watching this operation with a groan. 

“ You won’t be touched by me if you behave your- 
self, although you do deserve half-killing. But mind, 
if I catch you playing any more pranks, I shall just 
do as I said — strangle you. See those fingers? They’re 
lengthy, and they’re ve-ry strong. Sale 9 ” 

Down he came, heralded by a brown tricklet of 
soil and a few stones. He knelt at the edge of the 
opening for a moment, and I saw his white face peer- 
ing down with “ funk ” writ big all over it. But he 
soon mastered his scruples and dropped through on to 
the fiooring beside me, though a nervous upward lift- 
ing of one elbow showed that he wouldn’t have been 
surprised at getting a blow. However, I didn’t med- 
dle with him, but only bade him curtly enough light 
that candle. 

The sulphur match spluttered and stank, and I’m 
blessed if his fingers didn’t tremble so much when it 
came to lighting the wick that he dropped the burn- 


WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE. 


137 


ing splinter altogether. I grabbed the things impa- 
tiently enough out of his hands, got a light, and led 
the way. 

The walls beside us sloped in towards the top, 
where they were bridged by flat slabs some foot or 
eighteen inches above my head. The passage had 
been built before men knew of the arch. Under foot 
the ground was hard and dry, and as I should guess 
we passed over some dozen yards of it before we came 
into the chamber. That was built in much the same 
way, with the courses over-lapping, and the top crowned 
with a great flat flag instead of a keystone. But with 
the architecture of the Talayot we bothered our heads 
little then, and indeed our solitary candle showed it 
up but poorly. Right opposite the entrance a strip of 
the wall had been plastered, and at that the school- 
master and 1 sprang with a simultaneous rush. 

There was some writing on it ! 

Steadying the flame in the hollow of my hand, I 
I held it near and withdrew the guard. 

“ Good God,” shrieked Weems, “ what’s that ! ” 

The one word I saw was — Hereingefallen^ scrawled 
in white letters, and on the ground beneath was a 
piece of billiard chalk. There was nothing on the 
plastered surface beside, except the scratchings of a 
knife-blade. Someone had been there, read the Re- 
cipe, and then obliterated every letter. 

In a flash these things occurred to me, and I 


138 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


turned to see my companion collapse on to the ground 
like an empty sack. It required an effort to avoid 
following his example. The shock was a cruel one. 

The thing had been there. The old diary had 
lied in no single item. And here the treasure had 
been snatched away from us when it was almost with- 
in our grasp. And — then came the most strange 
conclusion of all — by someone who knew we were to 
follow. 

Haigh was out of the question. He knew no Ger- 
man. It was no elaborate joke of his. But who could 
it be ? I sat down on the earthen floor with my head 
between my fists trying to think it out. Hereinge- 
fallen! Yes “sold” indeed. But who, who, who 
had done it ? 


XI. 


THE RED DELE AMPHORA. 

The candle, stepped in a puddle of wax, burnt up 
steadily. There wasn’t the ghost of a draught in the 
place. The walls were dry-built, but their thickness 
was so great that no breath drove in from the outside, 
and the air of the chamber was heavy and earth-like. 
The place was bone-dry. I picked up the billiard 
chalk and felt that the green paper wrapping was crisp 
and stiff. The name of Kolandi et Cie. was printed 
upon it, but there was nothing which told me whence 
it came, or how long it had been there. Only that 
scribbled word Hereingefallen on the newly scraped 
plaster seemed to fixed a date on the spoiler’s visit. 
It appeared to me that no one would have taken the 
trouble to chalk up a jibe unless he had good reasons 
for supposing that someone else would come after to 
read and appreciate it. And yet this was only a 
guess. The whole affair was too mysterious to make 
out any settled theory from the slim data which lay 
before me. 

I got up, and went down the entrance passage, tak- 


140 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


ing the candle with me. Going on past the place 
where we had broken in, I found marks where another 
roofing flag had been moved and replaced. It was 
under the spot where we had noted the torn-up turf, 
and I came to a conclusion that the sleek black pigs 
of Minorca had been maligned. But — well, what was 
the use of puzzling on ? Much best to shrug the 
shoulders, say “ Kismet,” use strong language accord- 
ing to taste, and accept for granted that every man’s 
fate was writ big upon his forehead. 

A blurred noise of moaning came down the pas- 
sage-way from the black heart of the Talayot. “ That 
other poor devil’s coming to his senses again and is 
feeling lonely,” thought I, and retraced my steps. 
The little man was talking a bit incoherently, whim- 
pering to himself the while, and mopping his face with 
a clammy pocket-handkerchief. He was a tolerably 
poor sight. 

“ Look here, my son,” said I, “ you’ve lost your 
starch, and you’d better go home.” 

“ Whatever did I come for ? ” 

“ Why, to grab something that you’ve missed, and 
that I’ve missed too. It’s best to be philosophical 
over it, and clear out quietly and not gossip. Per- 
sonally I can do all the necessary ridicule myself. I’m 
not over-ambitious about spreading the tale, and get- 
ting indiscriminate chaff thrown in from all four 
quarters of the compass.” 


THE RED DEEP AMPHORA. 14 ^ 

“ Then you think there is no hope of getting the 
Recipe at all.” 

“The event is with Allah, and I am not in his 
confidence.” 

“ I must request you not to he profane in my pres- 
ence, Mr. Cospatric.” 

“ H’m, I’m feeling as if a little profanity would do 
me good just now.” 

“ Then let me use the word blasphemy. I object 
strongly to having my ears polluted by it. Blas- 
phemy — ” 

“ Oh curse you,” I broke out, savagely, “ stow that 
rubbish. After coquetting with murder, you’ve little 
call to preach about minor morals. I guess we’re both 
fairly rabid just now, and if nagging is your favourite 
safety-valve, you’d better screw it down: otherwise 
you’ll get hurt.” 

We stood there facing one another, the candle 
feebly illuminating us up to the knees, the upper parts 
of our bodies showing only in dim outline. For a good 
five minutes neither spoke. At last Weems announced 
his intention of departing, and was promptly given 
leave to go anywhere from Hell upwards. He went 
down the passage-way, but being too short to reach the 
gap in the roof, asked for assistance. I blew out the 
candle and went and hove him up; and afterwards 
climbed to outer air and sunshine myself. He was 
standing by the lip of the pit clenching and unclench- 


142 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


ing his fists, shivering, sweating, and periodically 
groaning. 

A thought struck me, and I promptly gave him the 
benefit of it without reserve. 

“We’re in a nice pickle, Mr. Weems, aren’t we? 
You’ve spent a lot of the money you’re so close-fisted 
about, and will have to travel cheap if you mean getting 
home again, and I’m in a ten times worse fix. I’ve 
chucked up a steamer-berth at Genoa ; I’m on a God- 
forsaken island where there’s next to no sea-traffic ; and 
I’ve run up debts with no prospect of repayment. It 
looks a bit as if gaol’s somewhere very close under 
my lee. And whom have we to thank for it ? Why 
you, my sportsman, and no one else.” 

“ Great heavens, what do you mean ? ” 

“ Why, that word Her eingef alien shows that the chap 
who looted this Talayot knew w^e were on the track, and 
as I haven’t mentioned a word about the affair to any 
one except Haigh, it stands to reason you’ve split.” 

“ I assure you, Mr. Cospatric — ” 

“ Oh very likely you didn’t do it on purpose. But 
you’ve got into conversation with some smart fellow 
who’s pumped you carefully without letting you get an 
inkling of what he’s got hold of.” 

“Upon my word of honour as a gentleman. Sir — ” 

“Faith, gentleman! Your word of honour! 
What’s that worth ? ” 

“ I must say you are very — very — er — rude. I would 


THE RED DELE AMPHORA. 


143 


have you remember that I am a graduate of Oxford, 
and as such — ” 

“ Of course take brevet rank as ‘ gentleman.’ An 
‘ M. A. and a gentleman.’ Lovely ! ” 

“ And you,” shouted the little man with a sudden 
spasm of rage, “ you who presume to lecture me are a 
man who has been expelled from Cambridge, a man of 
no means and no profession, a blackmailer — a — a — ” 

He spluttered and stopped for want of epithets. 

“ Black-leg,” I suggested, “ chevalier dHndustrie 
and all the rest of it. Very well, I’ll admit the whole 
indictment if it pleases you. And ” — I laughed, and 
stopped to load and light a pipe, “ and now let’s stop 
slanging one another like a pair of dials in a sailor’s 
pothouse, and go our several ways. I’m sure I don’t 
want to see your face again, and I don’t suppose you’re 
anxious to feast your eyes on mine.” 

“ I’m not,” said Weems. 

Those were the last words I heard him speak. We 
climbed the road-side wall to set off, he towards Mer- 
cadal, and I by the way I had come, and so far as I 
know never set eyes upon one another again. 

I strolled heavily on, musing sourly enough to my- 
self, and feeling utterly dispirited. There had been 
moments when life had appeared to me to be of a very 
dusky grey, but never before had I seen it all black 
with no single tinge of lighter colour. I looked back 
over my vagabond existence and thought what a hope- 


144 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


less muddle it had been. Even Weems was to be en- 
vied, although his trade was the one trade on earth 
which I most thoroughly loathed. 

In fact, till I opened the main road to Mahon the 
blue devils were in full possession, and made the most 
of their time. But there a flash of memory pulled 
me up all-standing ; and caused me to give hoots of 
joy and delight; and sent me to the right-about, 
whence I had come, at a very different pace. 

It was late that night when I dragged my feet up 
the hotel stairs to our quarters ; and as I had fed on 
nothing that day save prickly pears (which have but a 
transient effect on the stomach) and oranges (which 
are not much more filling) I told Haigh to order a big 
dinner, at the same time mentioning that I hadn’t got 
the Recipe. 

“ The feeding hour’s past, dear boy,” said he, blink- 
ing at me anxiously, “and the regular meal’s over. 
I’m afraid I’ve strained our credit a bit to-day. Don’t 
you think the best thing we can do is to stroll down to 
the cutter, fill your tummy on corned horse there, and 
help me slip moorings unostentatiously after dark ? 
I’m afraid our spec has rather missed fire here, and I 
don’t want to expiate the offence by a spell of cared. 
You see I’ve kept out of that so far during these 
vagrous years, and I don’t want to break record be- 
fore it’s necessary.” 


THE RED DELE AMPHORA. 


145 


I laughed boisterously. “ Prison be damned ! Look 
there ! ” And 1 pulled out of my jacket pocket a little 
two-lugged red earthenware pot and poured out a 
chinkling heap of something that glinted with many 
colours in the lamplight. “ Look there ! Essence of 
rainbows, a good half-pint. Who says half-a-loaf isn’t 
better than no bread ? ” 

“ Good Lord ! ” said Haigh. And after a pause : 
“ Who have you been robbing ? ” 

“ Grub first, and then yarn. I’ve borne the bur- 
den and heat of the day, and I’m very nearly cooked.” 

“ But are you sure they ain’t duffers ? ” 

“ Duffers, your grandmother. Look at ’em.” 

“ Can’t see very clearly to-night, dear boy. Day’s 
been a bit wet, thanks to my Juggins and his kind 
efforts. But I’ll soon find out.” And off he went 
to the window with a handful of the crystals, and 
scratched the glass with them, satisfying himself that 
they were really diamonds. 

“ Michael Oospatric,” said he, “ ’tis a great man 
y’are, and I’ll just go down and let on to the landlord 
in confidence that you’re an American marquis travel- 
ling incognito?'* 

The resources of the hotel had distinct limits, but 
Haigh ’s influence and eloquence strained them to the 
very verge that night. I did not merely feed; I 
dined : and in consequence spoke of the day’s heat as 
glorious sunshine; saw only the humours of Weems’s 


146 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


freaks; and even passed over the disappointment at 
the loss of the Recipe without painting it in over- 
sombre colours. It isn’t in my nature to be miserable 
or morbid when I’ve either a good meal under my 
belt or the means of getting others stowed within my 
pockets ; and so being possessed of both these desid- 
erata, I freely admitted to Haigh that this terrestrial 
life was thoroughly well worth living. 

“ One thing is clear,” said Haigh, as I relit my 
pipe after finishing a full and exhaustive account of 
the day’s doings. “Weems hasn’t been pumped. 
You’ve bawled the story abroad yourself.” 

“ How’s that, and where ? ” 

“ In the caffe at Genoa. You said there was a man 
sitting beside you ? ” 

“ Hot beside, but comparatively near. Say a dozen 
yards off. Yes, I remember him, a good-looking fel- 
low in coloured pince-nez. But he’d ‘ no Sassenach.’ 
Weems had been talking to him just before, and had 
found out that. And so as he and I spoke in nothing 
else but English, I don’t see how the other could have 
made out what we were jabbering about.” 

“ Do you always parade all your accomplishments, 
dear boy? Hot much. I also never make fifty-breaks 
at billiards before a mixed audience. And your friend 
with the spectacles was the same. Moreover he saw 
that Weems was a garrulous little beast and not in- 
viting to talk to. So he just followed the John 


THE RED DELE AMPHORA. 147 

Chinaman trick and said “No sabe” and listened 
unnoticed.” 

“ Commend me for a most particular greenhorn.” 

“ Not of necessity. It’s an easy mistake to fall 
into, dear boy. And besides, I don’t know that you 
were trapped that way, after all. It’s only a guess on 
my part.” 

“ By Jove, you must have hit upon the right thing 
though, and for this reason. I only told Weems about 
the Recipe. I kept back the item about specimens 
being buried under the writing, as a sort of lonne 
bouche ; and as matters turned out never told a soul 
about it. So you see, the man who looted the Talayot 
could certainly not have overhauled the diary, or he 
would never have left this little red urn full of gems. 
I found it where Lully buried it six hundred years 
ago, the lid waxed over, and stamped with an alembic 
and the man’s own family coat-of-arms. Gad, I won- 
der where that signet ring’s got to now.” 

“Nevermind that trifle, old chappie. We’ve got 
enough of the gentleman’s family jewellery to be able 
to do without a trumpery gold ring. It’s the rest of 
the Legacy that I’ve got my covetousness upon now. 
Where’s that gone to? You didn’t happen to inquire 
of your farmeress person whether she’d had any other 
visitors with archaeological tastes during the last few 
days ? ” 

“ I didn’t, but I don’t think she knew of anyone 


148 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


being about on that tack, or she’d have told me about 
it. The woman was garrulousness personified.” 

“ Still there’s no harm in returning there to-mor- 
row and pushing inquiries a little further.” 

“ Not the least. It stands to reason someone has 
been inside the Talayot, and thanks to this island being 
a small one, with a good average of inhabitants to the 
acre, we should, if we push inquiries far enough, find 
out who the explorer was and when he went there.” 

With that we left the subject, and Haigh went on 
to relate what a day he’d had with the Juggins before 
that worthy finally tore himself away to catch the 
Mallorca steamer; which topic being treated with a 
humorous touch kept us in merriment for the rest of 
the evening. 

Next day I lazed, and Haigh, taking his turn on 
duty, rode down to the neighbourhood of Talaiti de 
Talt, and brought back news that mystified us still 
further. The good woman who owned the farm knew 
nothing about the matter ; neither did the ploughman 
from whom I had bought the three-angled hoe ; but a 
stonemason in the cemetery above Mercadal reported 
as follows : 

He had seen three men, strangers, come up the 
road from Ferrerias and walk down that towards Mer- 
cadal. The time was after midnight, and as he had 
finished the work which had detained him so long — to 
wit, opening a vault for the reception of a fresh tenant 


THE RED DELE AMPHORA. 149 

on the morrow — he strolled homewards after them. 
But as they passed on straight through the town, he 
got a bit curious, and, keeping out of sight, followed 
astern, along the narrow country roads which led to 
nowhere special. He saw them pull up before the 
great tumble-down Talayot which stands opposite the 
big stone altar, and watched them produce lantern, 
shovel, and pickaxe and begin to dig; after which, 
feeling that his interest had evaporated (so he said), 
or, more probably, being oppressed with sleepiness, he 
returned to Mercadal, and soon had his head under 
the bedclothes. 

Now, this was all understandable enough ; but 
when that inquisitive tombstone artificer deliberately 
affirmed, in spite of many attempts to shake his mem- 
ory, that the spoiling of the Talayot had taken place 
on the night immediately preceding our arrival in 
Mahon and the arrival of His Most Catholic Majesty’s 
mail steamer Antiguo Mahones^ then it seemed to 
Haigh and myself either that somebody was lying 
most blackly, or that we ourselves could not believe 
certain of our own senses, which we had hitherto con- 
sidered strictly reliable. For during the gale there 
had been absolutely no steam-communication with 
Mahon from the Continent, and to Cindadella steam- 
ers never run at any time. 

“ Of course,” said Haigh, slowly swinging round 
the contents of his glass, and blinking thoughtfully 


150 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


at them, “ of course there’s the cable, which nine days 
out of ten is in working order. And as this seems 
to be run on lines suitable for some place half way 
between Egyptian Hall and the Bethlehem Institu- 
tion, we need be surprised at precious little. But the 
idea of your caffe friend with the spectacles cabling 
across for someone here to copy the Recipe for him 
and send it back by post is a leetle too strong. Of 
course the chances are several millions to one against 
his knowing a soul in the island, much less the address 
of such a person ; but even supposing that did occur 
and he had an intimate friend here, we’ll say, for the 
sake of argument, at Ferreiras, why should he trust 
that friend? He must see the friend would under- 
stand that the opportunity was one which would not 
occur again in several score of life-times; and he 
might lay his boots on it that the friend, be he never 
so confidential and honest, would not fail to profit by 
the matter for his own ends. Because, you see, this 
earth is peopled by human beings and not archangels. 
And besides this trifling objection, doesn’t it strike 
you that the message would never land in the con- 
fidential friend’s fingers at all ? ” 

“ I don’t quite see that.” 

“ It’s simple, though. The message is handed in 
at Genoa. I think there’s a through wire from there to 
Marseilles. Thence it goes to Valencia, by which 
time it has been overhauled by at least three tele- 


THE RED DELE AMPEOEA. 


151 


graph clerks, and all their intimate friends. One 
cable crosses to Ivi^a, another continues on to Mallor- 
ca, and a third crosses to this island. Knowing the 
weakness of the Spaniard for making his work as 
cumbersome as possiblej it’s a small estimate to say 
that the message is — or ought to be — fingered by at 
least six more men before it gets to the delivering of- 
fice. And do you suppose that out of all those poor 
devils of telegraph clerks there wouldn’t be at least 
one who would forswear his vows, and pocket the in- 
formation? Ko, no. ’Tisn’t good enough. If your 
man was smart enough to eavesdrop, you can lay to it 
he wasn’t a sufficiently stupendous idiot to shout his 
secret down a telegraph wire.” 

“ There’s such a thing as cipher, though.” 

“ There is,” said Ilaigh, dryly ; “ but I think we 
can make bold to leave that out of the calculations. 
The odds are piled up star-high, as it is, against Mr. 
Spectacles having a confidential agent here at all 
whom he would be inclined to trust with such a job. 
But when you suppose that the pair of them have a 
ready-arranged cipher in full working-order, why 
then infinity is a small figure for the chances against 
it. Cabling is out of the question, old chappie. In 
fact, set alongside of that, the idea of flying across 
carries ordinary probability with it.” 

“ And as,” I added, “ the port-captain at Cinda- 
della wdres that he has had no single incoming vessel 
11 


152 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


during the last ten days, and we know that none have 
come into Port Mahon, except the Fleet, and the An- 
tiguo Mahones, and ourselves, we’ve arrived at the 
most unpickable deadlock that two grown men ever 
scratched their heads over.” 

“ That,” said Haigh, “ is about the size of it, and 
so I vote we just let the Kecipe slide and enjoy our- 
selves on the other goods the gods have kindly pro- 
vided. Come across to the next room. The conduc- 
tor of the opera company’s staying there, and if the 
opera company’s rank bad, the conductor at any rate 
is a musician.” 


XII. 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 

Up till that time I knew nothing of Haigh’s gifts 
in the musical line, and a bit of a revelation was in 
store for me. I did not come all at once. The con- 
ductor of the opera company (“ repiitado maestro D, 
Vincente Paoli ” the lean handbills styled him) opened 
the concert, and it was not until he and Haigh had 
some difference over the accentuation of a note in an 
air from Bizet’s I Pescatori di Perle that my shipmate 
strode over the piano stool. 

The old professional’s face was amusing to watch. 
Good-natured contempt for amateur theory was very 
plainly written on it at first. That gave way to sur- 
prise and wonder ; and then these merged into undi- 
luted admiration. 

Haigh had given his version of the disputed pas- 
sage, and then saying, “ This is rather a fine hit too,” 
had played through the Moor’s fierce love-song ; after 
which, without any words being spoken, he verged off 
into other melody which we could appreciate even 


154 


THE HECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


though we failed to recognise its origin. It was all 
new to us, and after awhile we began to see that the 
player was his own composer. 

He peered round from time to time glancing over 
his shoulder at our fao«s, and once stopped to ask if 
we were bored. 

“ No, go on,” said Paoli. “ I never heard music 
like that before. It is new. I do not say whether I 
like it. I cannot understand it all as yet, I who can 
comprehend all that even Wagner wrote. But it is 
wonderful. Continue. — No, nothing fresh, or my ears 
will be dazed with surfeit. Play again that — that 
piece, that study, I know not what you call it, which 
ran somehow thus ” — the Italian hummed some 
broken snatches. — “ It seemed to show me a procession 
of damned spirits scrambling down the mountains to 
hell, with troops of little devils blackmailing them on 
the road. I know not how you call the thing, and 
like enough I have totally missed its motive; but 
there is something about it that holds me, fascinates 
me, and I would hear it again that I may under- 
stand.” 

Haigh grinned and complied, and then he played 
us more of his own stuff, the most outre that human 
ears had ever listened to, and we marvelled still 
further. But having by this time fallen in with his 
vein, we both of us could appreciate the luxuries he 
was pouring out. 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. I55 

“ Sig/ 107 ','*'^ said Paoli, enthusiastically, when it was 
over, “ if you chose you could found a new school of 
music.” 

“ And call it the Vagabond School, eh ? ” 

“ Your airs are wild and weird, I own, but, signor, 
there is melody in every note of them.” 

Haigh shrugged his shoulders. “ Such melody, 
maestro mio, as only the initiated can appreciate. You 
have been a wanderer, maestro, and so has Cospatric ; 
therefore you understand. But the steady industrious 
stay-at-homes, the people who think that they know 
what music really is, and what its limits are, and all 
about it, what would they say to these queer efforts of 
mine? They would not even dignify them by the 
word ‘ distorted.’ They would call them unmitigated 
bosh, and set me down as a virulent maniac. No, 
signori, I am not ambitious, and so I shall not lay 
myself open to that sort of snubbing. Come across to 
the other room for cigarettes and vermouth.” 

And there we sat till the melancholy chaunt of 
the sereno outside told us it was five o’clock, and with 
the blessing of God, a fine morning. 

A certain black box, my one piece of salvage from 
the wreck at Genoa, came up from the ugly cutter 
next afternoon, and I am proud to say that my violin 
added another link between us. 

For the next three days we had as good a time as 
one need wish to enjoy. Every evening after his 


156 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


duties at the theatre were over, the old Italian called 
us round his piano, and we feasted on what we all 
three loved. And then the Opera Company took 
steamer to fulfil an engagement at V alencia. Haigh 
was for accompanying them. Amongst other reasons 
he had a bit of a penchant for the soprano’s under- 
study. But I said “ No,” reminding him of the other 
business we had in hand, and pointing out how much 
time had been frittered away already. 

“ Oh, as to that,” said he, “ I think we may as well 
pat the pocket that holds what we’ve got, and resign 
ourselves to Kismet with regard to the rest.” 

“ It’s scarcely wise to throw the sponge up yet. I 
am not hopeful, but I don’t despair.” 

“ I’m letting the thing drop from my mind. 
However, if you’ve an idea, old chappie, let’s hear it.” 

“ What do you say to taking up another part- 
ner?” 

“ To what end ? I fail to see what use a third 
would be. Still, give the proposed partner a name.” 

“ Taltavull.” 

“ Phew ! I say, I rather bar meddling with poli- 
tics, especially the white-hot explosive politics that he 
affects.” 

“ So do I. I hate ’em. Still, if there’s anybody 
able to ferret out where that Recipe’s got to, and 
make the present holder disgorge, that long, lean, re- 
spectable-looking anarchist is the man. To begin 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 


157 


with, he. has a far cleverer head on him than either of 
us can run to, and from what I told you about his 
theories, he’ll be as keen as knives when once he’s 
shown the scent.” 

“ But the man’s not more than human,” objected 
Haigh. “ I don’t see that he’ll be able to squint fur- 
ther through a brick wall than either of us could.” 

“ He has more chances, for this reason : he’s 
mixed up with social undercurrents whose flow we 
can neither trace nor follow. These will take him to 
places where we could not get, and show him things 
that we could not find.” 

“ Which fine metaphor boiled down signifies that 
you want to bring the man into partnership because 
he is a professional conspirator.” 

“ Put it that way, if you like. Also you must not 
forget that you and I are at present deadlocked.” 

“ So that we have all to gain and nothing to lose. 
Precisely ; old man, you’ve put it in a nutshell. The 
only other thing is, do you think Taltavull would play 
fair?” 

“We must risk that. It isn’t a matter one could 
make out a paper agreement over and sign our names 
to across a charter-party stamp. But I think, from 
what I saw of him, Taltavull is not the man to do an 
unfair thing to anyone who treats him well. But, as I 
say, we must be prepared to risk it.” 

“ All right,” said Haigh, “ then, so far as I’m con- 


158 'i’llE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 

cerned I’m quite willing. You do the recruiting. We 
might call ourselves the Raymond Lully Exploitation 
Company, Limited.” 

I went out there and then about the errand, and 
found Taltavull at his own house, sitting in a huge 
stuffed armchair. He was reading U Intransigeant, 
and making in blue pencil the points where he con- 
sidered its racy blackguardisms were not sufficiently 
pungent. 

The furniture of a Spanish sitting-room is made 
up, as a rule, of whitewash on the walls, and a good 
supply of eighteen-penny rush-seated chairs scattered 
about the tiled floor. This is on account of the 
climate, which at times makes all appearances of cool- 
ness to be highly appreciated. But the anarchist was 
not a Spaniard, nor an Italian, nor anything else so 
narrow. He was a man of no nationality, and cosmo- 
politan, and sublimely proud of that expansiveness. 
Consequently, he had taken his ideas of furniturb 
from a more northern island, and had his room well 
crammed with massive mahogany and dark oak, with 
the upholstery in dull crimson velvet. To be sure, no 
style could be more unsuited to the climate, but then, 
on the other hand, it was a standing witness of his 
emancipation from all restraint. The thing might 
bring him discomfort, but that was a secondary mat- 
ter, and he was prepared to suffer for his faith’s sake. 
Certain hard and fast principles always came flrst 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 


159 


witli him, and in the heavy mahogany and the hot 
plush velvet none of them were violated. 

He put down his paper when I was announced, 
and said he was glad to see me ; and I honestly be- 
lieve that the phrase of welcome was no empty one 
even before he knew what I had come about. He 
seemed — I say it without conceit — to have taken a 
fancy to me at our first meeting. 

The gist of my tale came out pretty rapidly, 
although I skipped no details but waded through 
chapter and verse ; but before it was half-told, Talta- 
vull had sprung up from his seat, and was pacing 
backwards and forwards over the thick carpet, fiercely 
waving his long arms, and looking for all the world 
like a mechanical frock-coated skeleton. I broke off, 
and asked half-laughingly if I had offended him. 

“ I deem you, SeUor^^’’ cried he, “ the greatest bene- 
factor that my Cause and I have ever known. I shall 
feel myself standing to the chin in your debt, what- 
ever your conditions may be.” 

And with that I went on to the end of the 
yarn. 

Senor Cospatric,” said he, when the last had been 
told, “ it is directly contrary to the tenets of our Creed 
to assist one individual — much less two — in piling up 
wealth beyond the due proportion. But it is also our 
fixed maxim to deal honourably with those who do 
the like by us. You, Don Miguel, are one of our 


160 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


enemies, a passive one, it is true, but none the less an 
enemy, because you are not for us. Also I see with 
sorrow and certainty that you will never become a 
convert. There is something in your blood, some 
hereditary taint of conservatism, which forbids it. 
But for all that, you shall find that we anarchists can 
keep faith with our opponents. You shall have your 
rigid eighteen months’ monopoly of the diamonds be- 
fore we begin to stir the market and set about revolu- 
tionizing the world.” 

“ Always supposing you can manage to finger the 
Recipe, which, as we stand at present, seems a by no 
means certain thing.” 

“ Pah, amigo ^ you are half-hearted. I ” — he 
struck his narrow chest fiercely — “shall never think 
of defeat. From the outset I shall go into the busi- 
ness with intention to succeed. Of my methods you 
may not learn much, for to those beyond the pale we 
lock out secrets. But could you know how far our 
brotherhood extends, and how deep is the responsi- 
bility with which each member is saddled, you would 
have more faith in the mighty weapon whose hilt I, 
Taltavull, grasp between my fingers.” 

“ Don’t you go and involve Haigh and myself in a 
political row.” 

“ No word of what is happening will pass outside 
the bounds of our own clique.” 

“ I just mentioned the matter y’know, because 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 


161 


you anarchists have got the reputation of not sticking 
at much.” 

“ My dear Don Miguel, a statesman in your own 
Islands once evolved the policy of Thorough. We 
have adopted the selfsame principle. !Nobody and 
nothing must stand in the way of our ends. We 
stand up for humanity in the mass. Bourgeois so- 
ciety is bound to go under. And to hasten its down- 
fall any one of our members is proud to offer himself 
as a sufferer, or as even a martyr to death for the 
Cause. We aim at producing a state of society in 
which men may live together in harmony without 
laws. You must see that we are merely extreme 
philanthropists, and that our motives are pure in the 
extreme. And, amigo^ you must disabuse your mind 
from the vulgar illusion that we are nothing but a 
band of brutal assassins who murder only through 
sheer lust for blood.” 

I started some sort of apology, but he cut me short. 

“ My dear fellow, you haven’t put my back up in 
the very least. A man is bound to misunderstand us 
unless he is on our side; because if he does under- 
stand and appreciate, and has any claim do the title 
of Man, he could not help being an anarchist. But 
now let us drop the question and get to the work of 
the more immediate present. I am going to the tele- 
graph office first. Let me accompany you back as far 
as your hotel.” 


162 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ When shall I see you again ? ” I asked, as we 
parted at Bustamente’s doorway. 

“ When I find where the Recipe is.” 

“ And that will occupy how long ? A week ? ” 

Taltavull laughed. You will see me to-morrow 
afternoon, at the latest,” said he. 

Confidence is said to be infectious, but I can’t say 
that my hopes were very highly excited by Taltavull’s 
sanguineness of success. As to Haigh, he had scoffed 
at the idea of tracing up the Recipe from the first, 
and all I could tell him about the new power on the 
scent would not change his cheerful pessimism. “The 
whole loaf we are not going to get, dear boy,” was his 
stated opinion; “and we may as well be contented 
with the crumbs we’ve grabbed, and enjoy ’em ac- 
cordingly. There’s the dinner bell. Let’s go and 
make merry with the drummers.” 

However, true to his word, and not a little to our 
surprise, Taltavull turned up about four the next 
afternoon and told us that he had been successful. 
There was a little subcutaneous pride to be noted as 
he made the announcement, for after all he was a 
human man as well as an anarchist, and had done a 
thing which we deemed very nigh impossible. But 
he kept this natural exultation under very modestly, 
saying that all credit that might be due was owing not 
to him but to the Great Organization. We were 
merely offered a proof, he said, of what the anarchist 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 


163 


body could encompass when once their machinery 
was put in motion. And then, having given us the 
broad fact, he proceeded to show out details. Or 
rather, to be strictly accurate, he gave us a string of 
results, without any hint as to how they had been 
arrived at, a certain amount of mystery being the salt 
without which no Secret Society could possibly exist. 

Put briefly and in its order of happening, the story 
ran as follows : 

The raider, as we had already faintly surmised, was 
none other than the man with the spectacles in the 
Genovese cajfL His name was Pether — N. Congleton 
Pether ; he was of Jewish extraction, and he was 
stone-blind. He had been much in Africa, and it was 
in the southern part of that continent that an ac- 
cident deprived him of his sight. The injured eye- 
balls had been surgically removed, and artificial ones 
mounted in their stead. The man was clever in the 
extreme in hiding his infirmity ; for a week none of 
the hotel people where he was staying in Genoa ever 
even guessed at it. Casual acquaintances scarcely ever 
detected the missing sense. 

English being his native tongue, Pether had natu- 
rally lost no word of the discussion over Weems’s 
manuscript, and directly the little schoolmaster and 
myself had left the caffe he had beckoned his servant 
Sadi, who was within call, and had gone off on his arm 
towards the harbour. There he threw money about 


164 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


right and left, and the information he wanted was 
given glibly. A freight steamer consigned to some 
senna merchants would be sailing for Tripoli at noon 
on the morrow. To the skipper of this craft he be- 
took himself and bargained to be set down unostenta- 
tiously in Minorca. It would mean a very slight devia- 
tion from the fixed course, and what he paid would be 
money into that skipper’s own pocket. You see Pether 
knew how to set about matters. Had he gone to the 
shipowners, he would as likely as not have failed, or at 
any rate been charged an exorbitant fee. But by ap- 
plying to a badly paid Italian seaman who was not 
above cooking a log, he got what he wanted for a 
thousand-franc note. 

The senna steamer made for neither Cindadella 
nor Port Mahon. Her doings were a trifle dark, and 
she did not want to be reported. But her skipper was 
a man of local knowledge, and remembered that there 
were three small harbours on the northern coast of 
Minorca, used exclusively by fishermen and contraban- 
distas. Further, being a man of guile, he understood 
the ways of the outpost carabinero. He knew that 
if an open boat were seen to come into one of these 
village harbours from somewhere out of vague seaward 
darkness, the local preserver of the King’s Peace and 
the King’s Customs would not be rude enough to look 
in that direction. That uniformed worthy would 
understand that some gentleman in the neighbour- 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 


165 


hood wished to land a cargo, probably of smokable 
tobacco, free of duty. He would know that if he 
interfered he would probably test the chill sensation 
of dull steel jabbed between the shoulder blades be- 
fore many days were over. He would expect that in 
the ordinary course of events judicious shortsighted- 
ness would be rewarded by notes for many pesetas^ 
and American tobacco in generous quantity. And he 
would re-roll and smoke his Government cigarette, 
placidly noninterferent, thanking his best saint for the 
happy time to come. 

And in fine it was managed in this very fashion. 
The senna steamer hove-to in the twilight some three 
miles off shore, and a boat put into the tiny sheltered 
bay of Cavalleria just two hours after nightfall. The 
boat scarcely touched the beach. She disgorged her- 
self of two passengers and a small lot of luggage, and 
departed whence she had come in scared haste. 

A carabmero^ with his back ostentatiously turned 
to the new-comers, leaned on his rifle, whistling mourn- 
fully. Sadi wrapped a greasy note round a pebble, 
and chucked it to the man’s feet, whence it was trans- 
ferred to the pocket of his ragged red trousers with- 
out comment, and then the pair took their way up 
past the carvel-built fishing boats, into the straggling 
village street. 

Cavalleria has no regular foncla^ or even casa^ but 
there is a shop where they sell wine, and black tumour- 


166 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


covered sausages, and white bread and algohra beans, 
and Scotch sewing cotton. The whole village knew 
of their arrival, and were gathered in this shop to 
meet them when they came in. Few questions were 
asked. The Spaniard of the lower orders has a most 
Hibernian weakness for anything smacking of con- 
spiracy, or any enterprise which is “ Agin’ the Govern- 
ment.” Pether saluted the audience with one myste- 
rious grin, which they appeared to consider as fully 
explanatory, and, then inviting them all to drink with 
him, put down a peseta^^ and received much change 
in greasy bronze. “ Dos reales ” was the price of that 
piece of lavish entertainment, the old two-pence-half- 
penny still holding sway in out-districts against the 
more modern decimal notation. 

And then a guide was wanted. 

Every able-bodied man amongst the villagers of- 
fered his services for nothing. His time and all that he 
possessed was entered at the disposition of the Setiores. 
The choice was embarrassing. But at last one rope- 
sandalled hero was selected, and the trio set off into 
the night between the great rubble walls. The most 
of their luggage had been left to go to Mahon by 
mule pannier on the morrow. They only took one 
small box with them, slung by a strap over Sadi’s 
shoulders. But the guide carried a three-angled hoe. 

* A peseta is worth rather less than a franc at the usual rate 
of exchange. 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 167 

They struck the main road and held on along it 
till they reached the cemetery, and there struck off 
through Mercadal, and on down the narrow lanes to 
Talaiti de Talt. Sadi and the Spaniard dug, and be- 
ing used to the exercise, and working in the cool of 
the night, deepened their pit rapidly. Only the stars 
watched them at their labours. Pether was not able 
to look on : he could only listen. 

As day was beginning to grey the sky, the entrance 
tunnel was unroofed, and down the two foreigners 
dropped into it, Sadi leading. The man of the soil 
feared ghosts and crouched at the lip of the hole. 
Also, being ignorant of all other tongues save Minor- 
quin, he understood no word of what was being said 
beneath him. 

But of a sudden a noiseless light of blinding white- 
ness flared out from the inside of the Talayot ; and 
after an interval of black-velvet gloom it flashed out 
again. His fears still were strong, but curiosity 
trampled them under foot, and the man in the rope 
sandals dropped noiselessly on to the floor of the tun- 
nel. Again the intense white glare shone out and the 
watcher saw words of writing on the further wall of 
the Talayot, and him of the spectacles holding his 
wooden box so as to face them. Afterwards, by the 
light of a candle he who had made the flashes scraped 
this lettering from the plaster with his knife, and his 
companion, laughing, scribbled something else on the 
12 


168 the recipe for diamonds. 

blank place. And then, as the cold earthy atmos- 
phere was beginning to make him sweat, the son of 
the soil climbed down again. 

“ Great Caesar ! ” exclaimed Haigh, when the narra- 
tive had reached this point. “ I’m beginning to have 
an inkling of how it was all worked out. If that chap 
photographed the inscription by magnesium flash- 
light, I verily believe I know, where the plates — 
But don’t let me interrupt yet. Finish the tale 
first.” 

And so Taltavull went on. 

The uncanny sights which he had witnessed im- 
pressed the Cavalleria fisherman mightily, and when 
he received a valuable bank-note, he helped fill up the 
hole and departed, fully determined to hold his 
tongue. The man with the spectacles said that evil 
would assuredly befall if he spoke of the things 
he had seen, and that fisherman believed him im- 
plicitly. 

The two raiders walked rapidly down the narrow 
lanes till they came upon the broad road at that point 
w'here it is interrupted by a hedge of wheelbarrows 
and gang planks. Coming down the other branch 
road opposite to them was the zinc-roofed diligence, 
which had left Cindadella in chill darkness at a quar- 
ter to five. At their sign the driver brought the ram- 
shackle conveyance to a stand, and they squeezed into 
the stutfy interior. Then with an arre-e-ee^ and an 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 


169 


impartial basting with the short whip, the four 
wretched horses got into their shamble again and 
forty minutes later were climbing in and out of the 
clean dry holes in Calle Isabella 2* at Mahon. They 
only had one hitch in their enterprise. During one 
of these bumps in the uneven street the door flew 
open, and the camera fell out on the cobble stones 
with a thud and a sound of splintering glass. 

“ And I thought that man a Juggins,” said Haigh, 
“ and imagined I was blarneying and greening him ad 
libitum^ whilst all the time he was bamboozling me — 
me — me, gentlemen. But, Senor Taltavull, are you 
perfectly certain the fellow is blind? I think you 
must be mistaken there.” 

“ He is stone-blind ; but, as I told you, he is mar- 
vellously clever at concealing it. You are by no means 
alone in being deceived.” 

“ But, amigo^ he looked at me when we were talk- 
ing, and pointed out things about the room, and in 
fact used his eyes the whole time. Brown eyes they 
were, and good to look upon.” 

“ I tell you he is very, very clever, and as his great 
conceit is to hide his infirmity, he uses all his wit to 
do it. Sadi, his servant, had helped him to explore 
the room beforehand, so that he knew exactly where 
everything lay. And the sound of your voice would 
tell him where to direct his gaze during a conversa- 
tion. But call to mind anything where immediate 


170 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


vision was necessary. Did you never ask him to read 
a letter or anything of that kind, and not notice (now 
that you are reminded of it) that he somehow or other 
evaded doing so ? ” 

“ No, no — By Jove, yes, I did though. I asked 
him to play cards, and he wouldn’t from conscientious 
motives or some rot of that kind.” 

“ There you are then.” 

“ Right. Of course, he couldn’t see the pips. And 
this was the man I thought I was having on for a Jug- 
gins. And this is the man who has got the Recipe for 
Diamonds locked up in a photographic double dark- 
back. That is, unless he’s taken it out and got it de- 
veloped.” 

“ So far as I can make out,” said the anarchist, “ the 
negative is still undeveloped. Pether took it to Palma, 
and he has it there now, not daring to trust it in a 
photographer’s hands, and not being able to develop it 
himself. Seilores^ I believe it will be for us to unlock 
that tremendous mine of potential energy. Mallorca, 
I regret to say, is too strictly Catholic to be a profita- 
ble sowing ground for our propaganda, but we have 
scattered adherents here, and these are working their 
best for us. But our presence in that island is impera- 
tively demanded. U nf ortunately the next steamer does 
not sail for two days.” 

“ Then we’ll take the cutter,” said Haigh. “ Wind’s 
in the sou’-sou’-east and lightish, but if it holds as it is 


A PROFESSIONAL CONSPIRATOR. 

we should make Alcudia Bay by early to-morrow morn- 
ing, and from there could hit off the railway at La 
Puebla and get to Palma.” 

And to this Taltavull and I agreed. 


XIII. 

AT A MALLORQUIX FONDA. 

Our preparations for that short sea trip were few 
and simple. Taltavull exchanged three small dia- 
monds for cash, which enabled us to settle outstanding 
accounts ; Haigh procured a basket of bread, hard- 
boiled eggs, and vermouth bottles ; I made two or 
three chandlery purchases, and gave the rigging a bit 
of an overhaul. It was in the gloaming when we got 
the anchor, and night when we stood out between the 
dismantled old fort and the obsolete new one at the 
harbour’s mouth, and got into open water. 

Wind was fresh at first, and the ugly cutter’s stern 
hissed through the water like red-hot iron ; but as the 
moon rose into a steel-blue sky amongst bright white 
stars, the breeze dropped till it scarcely gave us steer- 
age-way. Haigh sat smoking at the tiller through- 
out the night ; Taltavull and I patrolled the narrow 
decks, chatting. We none of us felt inclined for 
sleep. 

Down came with a flash of vivid green the sul- 


AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA. 


173 


phur-coloured disc hard upon its heels. We were 
then off the south-western corner of Minorca, with 
the high ground on the northern parts of the sister 
island standing up clearly against the horizon. Even 
from that distance we could make out with the glasses 
a watch-tower on the peninsula which divides Pol- 
lensa Bay from Alcudia. Up there the sentinels of 
those naked slingers who loved wine and women 
when the world was young, had peered over the blue 
sea for a first sight of Roman or Carthaginian pirate 
galley. 

“Happy times when those men lived,” said the 
anarchist; “ there were few laws to trouble them.” 

“ Happy indeed,” echoed Haigh, “ for a boy with a 
taste for liquor and ladies, and who thought unlimited 
head-breaking a pleasing diversion.” 

In the middle of the channel a steamer passed us 
on her way to Algiers. She was the Eugene Perrier^ 
the very Valery Fr^res boat that had put us on our 
course again during that wild tearing race from Genoa. 

The fact was pointed out, and we looked her over 
again as one looks at an old friend who has rendered a 
big service. 

“ Bit of a change, this day from that, isn’t it ? ” 
said Haigh. 

“ About as big as they make ’em,” I admitted. 

“ I’m not so sure that I care for it, though,” said 
he. “ It had its strong points, that trip.” 


174 the recipe for diamonds. 

“ Especially when it was over,” I agreed. “ Yes, 
it’s fine to look back at.” 

“ It has one or two memories that will stick. You 
trying to catch up the slits in the mainsail as fast as 
the wind slitted them, with the knowledge that we’d 
probably go to glory if you got behind : I shan’t for- 
get that. And I think the face of that man we 
laughed at on the brig will stick. Also one or two 
other items. But as you say, old chappie, it’s nicest 
to look at from beyond.” 

The day flushed hotly as it wore on, and still the 
breeze kept light. We slid through the water slowly, 
leaving scarce a trace of wake behind us. Haigh 
smoked and drank vermouth ; Taltavull busied him- 
self below with dealing, on paper, with tremendous 
sums of money ; I bathed at intervals, diving from the 
bowsprit end, and climbing aboard again by the lee 
runner. 

It was a lazy, dreamy passage that of ours across 
the channel, and most enjoyable withal ; but there was 
a strong lure dragging us on, and I think all of the 
ugly cutter’s complement were unfeignedly glad when 
she opened up abeam both of the high headlands 
which bound Alcudia Bay. There is one lighthouse, 
on the northernmost cape, and we passed another on 
an island about half-way in, both in mocking contrast 
to the old round sandstone tower which rears itself 
amongst the palm scrub about a mile outside the 


AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA. 


175 


puerto. What that old crumbling castle was for it is 
difficult to see, for in the days when it was built there 
was no known artillery which would throw a ball half- 
way across the shallow bay. 

“ The lazaretto,” said Taltavull, pointing to a grim 
grey fortress further along the shore with high lime- 
stone walls, and look-out towers at the corners. 
“ Heaven help the poor cholera-stricken wretches 
wffiose fate it is to be boxed up in that prison. It 
helps to show, however, what a rabid hatred the Mal- 
lorcans have of all manner of disease. Read George 
Sand’s book about the island if you want to under- 
stand that. She brought Chopin here long ago, and 
wintered with him at the Valledemosa Convent, hop- 
ing to save him from consumption. The people in the 
village there are as hospitable as any in the world as a 
general thing, but they ostracised these two because of 
their dread and loathing for sickness, and deliberately 
tried to starve them out.” 

“ Brutes,” said Haigh. 

“ I think,” commented the anarchist, “ that they’d 
a perfect right to act as they did. They chose to : and 
that was sufficient. That’s my creed.” 

“ Poor creed,” said Haigh. “ Cospatric, stand by 
with that mud-hook, and we’ll bring-to by the schooner 
here. It’s getting very shallow.” 

We brought up to an anchor, snugged down and 
then hailed a boat and got put ashore where the fish- 


176 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


ing craft were riding to their bowfasts, and discharg- 
ing scaly rainbows on to the stone quay. The inevita- 
ble cardbinero gave us an examination, and then we 
made our way up from the little port village through 
beanfields and vineyards and olive yards, past an old 
Roman amphitheatre on to the double-walled town. 

Very Asiatic in appearance is Alcudia as one ap- 
proaches it, with its yellow and white houses, its 
domes, its crumbling amber walls, with ragged date- 
palms scattered here and there, and dusty green clumps 
of prickly pear scrawming about everywhere. But as 
a walled city its days are done. The massive gateway 
with its pitting of Saracen round-shot has no guard. 
The two fosses are planted thickly with grotesquely 
gnarled olive-trees. The streets are clean and the 
houses are in good repair, but there is a lazy old-time 
air about the place that would clog the hurrying feet 
of even a sightseeing American. 

We fetched up at the cam and had dinner, which 
commenced with a dry soup of ochre-coloured rice. 
It was a curious meal all through, and across the little 
well-yard we could watch the cooking done in earthen 
pipkins of various sizes each over its own charcoal fire. 
Then we went into the ca/e— an irregular room with 
the roof partly supported on arches, concrete fioor, 
and heavy odour of rancid oil and Government tobacco 
-—and sat on rush-bottomed chairs round a little deal 
table to sip our cognac and discuss on the next move. 


AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA. 


177 


“Now that we are coming to close quarters,’^ said 
I, “ it’s beginning to be borne in upon me that our 
proceedings are very lawless.” 

“Anarchistic, to say the least of it,” observed 
Haigh. 

“We are simply acting on the principle of the 
‘ greatest good for the greatest number,’ ” said Talta- 
vull. “ Pether is one : you are two, and I flatter my- 
self that I and my Cause make an important third : 
the interests of the one must go under in favour of the 
interests of the three.” 

“ Which being interpreted,” said I, “ is, that if A 
has a watch, and B, 0 and D are poor men with pistols, 
the watch of necessity changes hands. It may be natu- 
ral enough from your point of view, but it’s devilish 
like highway robbery from mine.” 

Taltavull shrugged his shoulders hopelessly. “ I 
shall never convert you, amigo!!'^ said he. 

“ I tell you what it is,” said Haigh. “ Seflor Tal- 
tavull’s conscience is satisfied, and so much the better 
for him. You and I, Cospatric, are too poor to afford 
the luxury of consciences. Pether it seems has this 
Recipe in the form of an undeveloped photographic 
negative. Perhaps he had no particular title to it in 
the first instance, but then, on the other hand, nor 
had we. Correctly speaking, I suppose the thing 
either belonged to the owner of the Talayot, or else as 
treasure- trove should revert to the crown. But on the 


178 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


glorious principle of ‘ no catchee no havee ’ I think 
we may leave these two last out of consideration. 
Under ordinary circumstances, I should have barred 
jumping on the chest of a man who is afflicted with 
blindness; but as this particular individual has seen 
fit to humbug me to the top of his bent, I shall waive 
that scruple. Seflor Taltavull, I’m with you in this to 
anything short of justifiable manslaughter. And Cos- 
patric — ” 

“ Won’t pin himself in spite of that scrawled insult 
Heremgefalle7i\^'* I cut in. “ So that’s how we all 
stand, and now easy with the debate, for if I’m not a 
lot out in my reckoning, there’s a pair of ears coming 
in through the glass door yonder that understand 
English.” 

We stood up and bowed, foreign-fashion, as the 
new-comer seated herself at a table near us, and she 
had soon drawn Haigh and the anarchist into con- 
versation. She had just purchased a Majolica bowl 
under repeated assurance that it was a piece of the 
genuine old lustre-ware. My two companions (as I 
learnt with surprise) were enthusiasts and experts on 
the subject, and they both assured her that the 
specimen she had procured was undoubtedly spurious. 
It seems there is a factory at Valencia where the 
bogus stuff is made, and a large trade is done in it 
with the curio-collectors. And moreover, every house 
on the island has been searched by local pottery-fa- 


AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA. 


179 


natics, and every scrap of the authentic lustre-ware 
stored in their salons or museums. Afterwards, they 
went on to the vexed topic as to whether the ware had 
ever been manufactured in the island at all. Haigh 
was of opinion that it had been made in Valencia, and 
carted over to Italy in Mallorcau craft, which were in 
the middle ages great carriers in the Mediterranean. 
This would easily account for the name Majolica. 
Taltavull held that it was a genuine product of the 
island, though he was bound to admit that no remains 
of manufacturing potteries had as yet been discovered. 
And so they went at it hammer and tongs, deduction 
and counter-deduction, proof and counter-proof ; and 
the owner of that glittering mauve-marked bowl 
which had started the discussion, threw in a well- 
considered word here and there to keep the argument 
well alive. 

Women are not in my way to talk to; but I sat 
in the background watching this clever stirrer-up of 
conversation for want of anything better to do. She 
was a woman with dark hair, just tinged with grey, 
with features that would have been pleasant enough 
if they had not been a trifle over-hard. She was 
neatly but not showily dressed, and wore a little jew- 
ellery of a ten-years-back fashion. She retained her 
hat and jacket, and one got the idea that she habitu- 
ally wore them except in bed. 

In fact, she was out of that cohort of Masterless 


180 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


Women who are so copiously spread over the Conti- 
nent. You find them from Trondjhem to Athens, 
from Nishni to Cadiz, seldom far from the beaten 
track, never under breeched escort. They speak three 
popular languages fiuently, and usually know some 
out-of-the-way tongue such as Gaelic or Albanian or 
a Czech patois. This one seemed quite at home with 
Mallorquin. They generally display the bare left- 
third finger of the maiden ; but even when that crit- 
ical digit is gold-fettered, you are not always satisfied 
that' they have ever called man husband. They al- 
ways carry guide-books, note tablets, patent medi- 
cines, and hand-satchel. They are very reticent about 
their own affairs, and correspondingly curious about 
yours. And finally, if one may hazard a generalising 
guess, they mostly seem to hail either from the At- 
lantic States or the south of Scotland. 

Probably because I showed no desire to cultivate 
her acquaintance, she began to throw out stray ques- 
tions for my answering, not about the cream and 
mauve lustre ware — about which I knew nothing — 
but on other points. 

“ It’s a strange thing,” said she, “ how nations like 
the Spanish which have beautiful languages are al- 
ways cursed with harsh voices to speak them with. I 
wonder if the converse holds true?” So I had to 
mention Norsk and Norwegians. 

And again : “ All the peasantry in Mallorca seem 


AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA. 


181 


to know one tune and one only, in a minor key with 
a compass of three whole tones. It is not unmusical, 
but, like the serenoh chant, it is hard to catch.” As 
I happened to know the air, the least I could do was 
to dot it down in her note-hook when she asked me 
to. The book flew open as she passed it across the 
deal table-top, and showed the name “ Hortensia 
Mary Cromwell ” written on the flyleaf. 

And then she found out that we had come across 
from Port Mahon in a yacht, and discovered besides 
that I was a sailor and vagabond by trade, and fairly 
drew me. To an appreciative listener I can always 
talk about the sea, and the sights of the sea, and the 
smells of the sea, and what those men do who make 
their livelihood by journeying across the big waters. 
And as this Cromwell woman spoke back intelligently 
about these matters, I liked her and sat there talking 
when the others went out to make a call. Nor did the 
experience weary me, for when they returned after 
midnight we were sitting vis-a-vis with our feet on the 
edge of the hrazero talking still. 

There was no nonsense about her. She was a salted 
traveller and had seen and done many things, and we 
had a score of tastes and sympathies in common. It 
isn’t often I’d give two sous to speak to any woman a 
second tim*e ; but I liked her, and said, when she went 
up-stairs, that I hoped we’d meet again, meaning what 
I said. 


182 the recipe for diamonds. 

Taltavull’s lean face was gloomy and threatening 
that evening. He told me that his correspondent in 
Palma had been arrested. 

“ The poor man’s only crime was that of spreading 
our propaganda,” said he, “ and his only real enemies 
were the swarming priests. He naturally spurned 
1 heir warnings with contempt, as every true anarchist 
must do, and continued sowing the good seed amongst 
his Roman Catholic neighbours. And so the Bishop 
went to the Captain-General, and our Cause was given 
another martyr.” 

“ Sad,” said Haigh, “ isn’t it ? ” 

“ I shall write them a fair warning,” continued 
Taltavull with a frown, “ and if the poor fellow is not 
instantly released I shall give orders to blow up the 
Cathedral, the Lonja^ and the Moorish Palace where 
the Cap tain- General resides. I do not think that they 
will press matters to extremes after that. The Cathe- 
dral is one of the finest specimens of Gothic ecclesias- 
tical architecture extant in the Spanish dominions ; the 
Exchange is certainly the finest piece of Gothic secular 
work in the world ; and the old Saracen palace is a 
thing these miserable bourgeois set immense store upon. 
It would be a tremendous blow to take them away, but 
if they press me I shall not spare the lesson. I’ve al- 
ready wired our head office in Barcelona for a consign- 
ment of dynamite.” 

“ I wish you hadn’t such confoundedly destructive 


AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA. 


183 


notions, old chappie,” said Haigh. “ It’s the one draw- 
back to you as a companion. Good-night, and give 
me a day’s warning when you’re going to blow any- 
thing up ! Good-night, Cospatric — or rather, good- 
morning. 


13 


HEREIJ^GEFALLEN ! 


It did not seem that I had been very long turned 
in when Haigh came to my bedroom and woke me. 

“ Come across to my room,” said he, “ and see our 
anarchist shipmate in the process of going crazy.” 

“ Whatever do you mean?” I asked, sitting up. 

“ I don’t quite know whether I mean what I say, 
but anyway, come and see for yourself.” 

So I flung off the quilted coverlet, and pattered 
over the tiled floor on my hare feet, and across the 
corridor, and saw the anarchist dressed in his long 
black frock coat, and apparently in nothing else. He 
was dancing with fury, reeling out a continuous 
string of the most venomous Spanish oaths — which by 
a peculiar irony of a man of his creed are drawn al- 
most exclusively from our ecclesiastical basis — and at 
intervals pounding with one bony fist at a crumpled 
letter which lay in the palm of the other. 

Had I not witnessed the fact with my eyes I 
should not have imagined it possible that he could so 


HEREINGEF ALLEN ! 


185 


lose his self-possession. I knew him to be a man of 
strong emotions, but I had always believed him capa- 
ble of keeping them under iron control. 

“We have been fooled, laughed at, betrayed ! ” he 
screamed. “ The wretch that holds the Recipe has 
been playing with us. ‘No ’do I say? He might 
have played with you and been forgiven. You are 
but tools. You do not even belong to the Inner 
Brotherhood. But he has trifled with me. He has 
dared to make sport of me — Taltavull — whose edicts 
have caused thrones to totter, whose hand will soon 
sweep all thrones away. That can never he forgiven. 
He cannot live and expiate that insult.” 

From one of his pockets the old man drew a re- 
volver and held it up, resting the barrel on a crooked 
arm, and aligning the sights at an imaginary enemy. 

“ You two, my comrades, must help me in this 
just vengeance.” 

“ Not much,” said Haigh, peering at him coolly 
through half-shut eyes. “I’ve put my name down 
for a little gentle highway robbery, but if ordinary 
murder is to be added to the scheme, you may trans- 
fer me to the retired list. I’m not burdened with 
many scruples, but making cold meat of a gentleman 
for the small crime of sticking to his own property 
happens to be one of them.” 

“ And the woman who has helped him, and who 
has also put shame on us ? ” 


186 


THE KECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ My dear fellow, you can’t expect me to indulge 
in fisticuffs with a lady — especially one with such 
a catholic taste in Majolica lustre-ware.” 

Taltavull stamped and swore afresh. “And this 
insult? Will your cold northern blood permit you to 
swallow that unresented ? ” 

“My swallowing power has its limits, Mr. Talta- 
vull; so slow down. There’s an old adage about 
thieves quarrelling, and we three should do best by 
not falling out with one another. Come, let’s try 
back a bit. What the devil is this eighteen-cornered 
insult you’re so furious about ? ” 

Taltavull thrust the letter into his hand, and 
stalked away to the window muttering in his beard. 

I looked over Haigh’s shoulder, and read with 
him : 

“ Fonda Forget-what Alcudia Mallorca. 

“ Tuesday morning, 1.37 A. M. 

“ Most 20orthy Sefiores : 

“ Once more let me lorite ^ Her eingef alien, ^ and if 
two of you fail to appreciate its delicate and subtle im- 
port, lam sure that the polyglot Mr. Afichael Cospatric 
will courteously interpret. 

'‘'‘Your arrival here came to me, I own, as a trifling 
surprise. I had not expected such pressing atten- 
tion. 

“ It may please you to learn that I nearly jomed 
your conclave during the course of last evening. Mrs. 


HEREINGEFALLEN ! 


18 Y 


CromwelV s prolonged absence made me curious^ and I 
descended the stairs from our joint sitting-room^ and 
I was within an ace of entering the cafe where you were 
all four seated^ to inquire after her loheredbouts. But, 
with my hand on the latch of the dooi\ a sou7id met 
my ear which caused me to pause. It teas the well- 
hnown melloiv voice of my friend Mr. Haigh., raised in 
argument. I recognised it in an instant. It is a 
conceit of mme to study voices^ and a peculiar talent 
never to forget them. 

“ To enter might have caused unpleasanUiess. Be- 
ing a man of peace., I consequently forbore to enter., 
and luaited in my room till Mrs. Cromwell returned. 
You had been most generously profuse in your expla- 
nations. From 07 ie or another of you she gathered all 
there was to knoiv. Senores, you have been most solicit- 
ous after my humble welfai'e. Senores, I would have 
you accept my most profuse thanks. 

“/ regret that the pressure of cwcumstances foi*- 
bids my takmg formal leave of you. But at an early 
hour this mor^dng, when you will still be stretched 
upon your virtuous pallets., Mrs. Cromivell and I set 
off for the port of Soller. We shall have our morning 
coffee at Pollensa, and eat our lunch at the convent of 
Neustra Seiiora del Lluch. And there ice shall leave 
the carriage. But we shall not spare time to pay our 
devotions at the shrine of that celebrated black virgin. 
Mules will be waiting to take us through the ilex for- 


188 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


ests^ and down the carton^ and over the high mountain 
tracks and down that cleverly -built pass-road to the 
lovely valley of Soller. 

“ Do you know Soller^ Senores, the prettiest little 
valley in Europe^ full of the scents of the orange and 
the lemon trees with which it is planted 9 No ? Then 
visit it when you have the chance, I regret that we 
shall not be there to receive you. But we go on to the 
little port of Sollei\ where a felucere is lying stern-on 
to the quay waiting for iis. By nightfall we shall be 
in the lift of the swell, standing out between the lights 
at the tiny harbour's mouth, 

^’‘Our destination? Bertores, believe me, I blush 
for joy lohilst I ivrite. Mrs, Cromwell is about to 
honour me by adding her hand to the heart she has 
already bestowed upon me, 

“^5 regards that undeveloped negative, which Mr, 
Cospatric {with the skill acquired when he was bottle- 
washer to a photographer) so kindly put into the port- 
able dark slide, my wife will take lessons in the art 
in some quiet town on the mainland, and when suffi- 
ciently skilled in technique will develop out its secret, 
and share with me the great reheard, 

“/ do not know that I am indebted to M, Taltavull 
for any matter, but I should be sorry to leave unre- 
quited the interest he appears to take in my loelfare. 
If he will send his address to ^Poste Restante ’ Cannes, 
Monte Carlo, or Hyhes, I shall be proud to send him 


HEREINGEPALLEN ! 


189 


a delicate xoedge of our wedding cahe. 1 trusty however^ 
he knows my name^ for here I shall only sign myself 
^^jSehoreSy 

“ Tour infinite superior, 

“ VA veugleP 

“ That’s delicious,” said Haigh, when he had fin- 
ished reading. 

“ But the insults, Seflor,” said the anarchist, turn- 
ing round again. 

“ Beautiful ! ” 

“ Have you read those burning gibes ? ” 

“ The humour of the thing’s transcendental.” 

“ Senor Haigh, look at that letter calmly.” 

“ I am doing. Isn’t the satire something lovely ? 
My mellow voice ! Ho, ho, ho ! And Cospatric’s ex- 
periences as a photographer’s bottle-washer ! Grand ! ” 

The anarchist began to stamp about in a new ac- 
cess of fury, and so Haigh changed his tone. 

“ Laugh when you’re licked, my dear fellow,” said 
he. “ Believe me it’s the best way, and Lord knows 
I ought to be an authority.” 

“ We’re differently constituted, Sefior.” 

“ Faith, I grant that same’s true.” 

“ This loss means more to me than it does to you.” 

“You are making it do so, certainly; but there, 
for God’s sake, don’t let’s be asses enough to quarrel. 
Here, smoke.” 


190 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


We all three lit cigarettes, and there was a silence 
for some minutes. Then Haigh broke out again : 

“ Phe — ew ! ” he whistled. “ Have they gone 
posting to Soller after all?’’ 

“ Eh ? ” said Taltavull. 

“I mean, isn’t this all a blind? Wasn’t that 
letter written just to put us on the wrong track? 
Why should the man have taken the trouble to make 
all that long screed just for the sake of jeering, when 
he wouldn’t be here to see what effect his smart sar- 
casms would have ? Besides, if he showed his route, 
he might think we could work the telegraph wires 
and get him and his blessed felucere stopped in Soller 
Port till we came up. Now here or Palma are the 
orthodox outlets to this island. What’s the best way 
to Palma ? ” 

“ La Puebla, and rail from there.” 

“ Bet anyone an even ten pesetas that Mr. Pether 
has cleared by the early train from La Puebla.” 

“ The same road leads out of here, till it branches, 
whether one is going to Pollensa or La Puebla,” ex- 
claimed the anarchist, with a fresh access of excite- 
ment. I can wire friends at both places, who can find 
out for me which way they have gone. I will go and 
do it at once.” 

He rushed away to the stair-head till Haigh 
shouted, “ Put on your trousers, man, first ! ” and 
then he turned to his own bedroom. 


HEREINGEF ALLEN I 


191 


“ He don’t take a whipping well,” said I, as the 
gaunt figure disappeared. 

“ Ruffle a fanatic,” said Haigh, “ and you’ll soon 
see that he’s all superfluous nerves and useless 
springs.” 


\There breaks in at this point an extract from the life-history of Mr. 

N. C. Fether., which bears upon the main narrative. It is told by 

himself. \ 

XV. 

CAMARADERIE. 

. . . Agaix I distinguished the Belgian drum- 
mer’s steps coming aft along the deck planks. “ They 
are all so sick below,” said he, “ that I could endure it 
no longer.” He sat down on the saloon skylight be- 
side me. “ You see that low hummocky island we are 
coming to, out yonder on the port hand ? Cabrera, 
Monsieur, where they say Hannibal was born, and 
where they hope and expect M. Blanc’s successors will 
find a resting place for their tables when France and 
Italy hound them out of Monte Carlo. I was over in 
Cabrera the other day. I ran across in the little 
packet from Palma. There’s a lovely harbour there, 
almost as good as the one at Mahon, and the place 
holds two hundred people, who are planting vines and 
building fortifications. My faith, it will be a heavy 
change if they make that into the fashionable gam- 
bling hell of Europe. 

“ You are regarding the island ; you see its con- 
tours ; now shut your eyes. 


CAMARADERIE. 


193 


^ Messieurs faites vd* jeu? — There’s the big fast 
steamer that has just run over from Marseilles in ten 
hours with a full passenger list of French, English, 
Kussians, and Americans. Few have braved the sea- 
trip just to idle about the casino as they used to do 
near Monaco. These are men and women who have 
come for hard business at the tables, and who for the 
most part expect to break or be broke. 

“ There is a gorgeous hotel awaiting them at the 
head of the harbour, where they dress and dine, and 
then out they go down the avenues of rustling female 
date palms (which bear electric lamps amongst their 
ochre fruit-clusters), and so on, to the most sumptuous 
building in the world, the new Cabreran casino. 

“ It differs hugely from the old temple of chance 
on the edge of the Continent — that enfer sur terre set 
amid a paradis. There is no ornate concert room 
here, or theatre, or opera house. There is not even 
a salon for gossip and smoke and exercise. The whole 
is one enormous salle de jeu.^ and the clink of gold 
against yellow gold is the only instrumental music. 
The cartwheel five-franc piece is nowhere permissible 
now, and at the rouge et noir tables hundred-franc 
notes are the smallest stake. There is a change in 
everything except in the croupiers and the chefs and 
the actual tables and machinery over which they pre- 
side. Even the atmosphere is new. The old dry heat 
is no more. In its place is a moist warmth, heavy 


194 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


with the scent of heliotrope and tuba roses. It seems 
as if one of the scent factories at Hyeres had staved 
its vats somewhere close at hand. Change every- 
where. Mesdemoiselles les cocottes. — But I weary 
M’sieu with my twaddle. ‘ Rien ne va plus."* The 
farce is over. 

“ Regard that brown promontory yonder, the 
easternmost horn of Palma Bay. With permission 
take my lunette. So ; now you cannot fail to see. A 
ship of the Romans, laden with pottery, struck there in 
time past, filled, and went down in deep water. The 
fishermen often bring up in their nets unbroken 
pieces from her cargo, crocks and pipkins identical in 
shape and texture with those the islanders use to- 
day. Ah, M’sieu, but they are ignorant, these Mal- 
lorcans, and happy in their ignorance. Food is so 
easily gained that none need starve; they have the 
best climate imaginable, free from the sirocco which 
plagues Algeria, and from the mistral which kills one 
on the Riviera; they are too indolent to meddle 
with politics ; they live in a lotus land of beauty and 
ease. We should despise them. Monsieur, but I fear 
many of us will envy their lot.” 

The Antiguo MaJiones was threading her way 
through a fleet of small fishing-boats, as I could tell 
by the reduced speed, the hooting of the syren, and 
the constant and prolonged rattle of the steering rods. 
Soon she would bring up to the quay in Palma bar- 


CAMARADERIE. I95 

hour. Why should I not get ashore there and work 
out the hard problem that was engaging me ? 

So far I had made no scheme of ultimate route. 
The meeting at the Mahon hotel with that cheery 
chevalier d* industries Haigh, and the knowledge that 
that more robust brigand, his blustering, heavy-fisted 
partner Cospatric was close at hand, had given me 
little leisure to plan far ahead. All my time was 
occupied in thinking how to fool the one and keep 
out of sight of the other till I could make escape 
from their immediate vicinage. 

But having once cleared from the island, it 
seemed to me that all probable danger of our future 
meeting was passed. At any rate, Mallorca would be 
the most unlikely spot to run foul of them in. So 
when the commercial traveller had turned away to 
look after his own affairs again, I got hold of Sadi 
and told him to get our traps together and pay up 
what we owed. 

Sadi turned and set about fulfilling the order 
without a question. That is the best of Sadi. He 
never wants to know the why or wherefore of any- 
thing. Within limits he is the perfection of a serv- 
ant for a man such as I. 

I had trusted Sadi with many things, and so far 
he had never failed me. I felt sure that he liked me, 
which was more than I would have said for any other 
member of the human race. But all the same, if he 


196 


THE EECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


had seen it worth his while to rob or betray, I’d a 
pretty strong notion that blood instinct would prove 
too strong, and he’d do it. You see, Sadi’s mother 
was half Arab, half Portuguese; his father was all 
Portuguese — gaol-bird Portuguese ; his youth had 
been spent in Marquez, which is on Delagoa Bay ; 
and these things do not breed immaculate honesty 
calculated to stand every strain. 

I may have wronged Sadi. As I say, he never 
failed me. But I felt that there might reasonably be 
a limit to his faithfulness ; and to let him have the 
solving of that inscription which I carried about my 
person locked in a fleckless photographic plate might 
very well have outstepped that limit. It would have 
been a heavy test on an archbishop’s honesty. 

So I did not intend to employ Sadi about this 
matter except as a last resort. I wished to let this, 
the most valuable secret the world contained, be 
known to no one except myself, if it could be so 
contrived. I desired to get it stored within my brain 
alone, and then to destroy the only other trace of it 
that was existent. 

Yet labouring under my peculiar disadvantage, 
the task appeared a hopelessly impossible one. 

As I went down the gangplank, and ranged up 
against Sadi’s elbow, walking with him past the 
wine casks and other litter on Palma quay, it seemed 
to me that after all I should have to accept the risk 


CAMARADERIE. 


197 


and recruit this companion’s aid. But such a de- 
cision was far too momentous to be hurriedly jumped 
at. The Recipe was safely locked in the yellow-green 
film. To most of the world its very existence was 
unknown, and I did not think that either Haigh or 
Weems or Cospatric would ever guess the manner in 
which it had been carried off and transferred to an 
invisible shape. Yes, the dark slide and its contents 
seemed safe in my possession, and as we entered the 
sacking-fioored carriage that was to take us up to our 
Foncla^ I registered a resolve concerning it. Pace 
accidents I would cudgel my own resources for one 
entire year before I gave in and sought external 
aid. 

At the Fonda de Mallorca I took, in Spanish 
fashion, a three-roomed suite, and for one entire day 
did not move out of their whitewashed fastnesses. 

I sat thinking, thinking, and thinking, and felt 
my brain grow duller with every effort. 

“ This will not do,” I told myself. “ I am used to 
fresh air, and sunshine, and the sound of voices, and 
I must live amongst all these as usual if I am to 
puzzle out this riddle. The answer, the key, if it 
comes at all, will arrive in a snap and a sudden, and 
won’t be got at by tedious pondering in an uncom- 
fortable hermitage.” 

So the next morning I spent on the roof chatting 
with a girl who w^as hanging out clothes to dry on the 


198 THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 

roof adjoining, sniffing the scent of the oranges which 
came from a roof-garden across the street, toasting 
myself under the hot sun, and getting fanned by the 
sweet sea-air that poured up over the housetops from 
the curved bay beyond. 

A bell clanged below and I went down the steps 
to luncheon. The landlord, according to his wont 
with strangers who were entered as SeTior and not as 
Don^ intended that I should join the drummer’s 
mess ; but I was in no particular mood for that 
racy assembly just then, and bade Sadi take me to 
the dining-room at the other end of the house, where 
I sat down amongst garrison officers, proprietors come 
in from the country, and members of that bachelor 
fraternity which lived at the club opposite and had 
their two principal daily meals here. They all knew 
one another, and had their well-worn cycle of conver- 
sation. They were tolerably cultured men who rose 
superior to patois, and spoke pure and beautiful Cas- 
tilian. 

No one addressed me, and I did not open my 
mouth for speech. Probably it never dawned upon 
them that I understood a word of their tongue. We 
Anglo-Saxons abroad have not a reputation for being 
polyglot, and I never advertise my own small linguis- 
tic attainments unless specially called upon to do so. 
I do not care particularly for the trouble of talking 
myself, and one scores sometimes by a taste for 


CAMARADERIE. 


199 


silence. I made rather a good point that way once 
in a certain Genovese caffk 

When that demyuno had progressed as far as cold 
pickled tunny, which came as a fourth course, we had 
an addition to the party. There was a light pattering 
of feet along the tiles to the doorway, and I felt the 
men around me bow — as they bowed to each new- 
comer. I joined them in the salute, and heard with 
surprise, as the fresh arrival went round by the table- 
head, the rustle of skirts — of tweed skirts, or else of 
rough serge, I could not be certain which. 

She took a seat opposite to me. The waiter placed 
before her a basin of soup. It was a Mallorquin soup, 
which consisted for the most part of slices of bread 
and a few slips of greens soaked in a very thin stock, 
with an egg broken over the whole so that the boiling 
mixture poached it lightly. Also there was a little oil 
added — native rancid oil. This sounds very nasty, but, 
like the taste for olives, if a taste for that soup is once 
developed, it fascinates. Myself I like this soup. The 
woman opposite did not. She told the waiter to take 
it away, naming it by its proper Mallorquin name. 

“ The arte de cocina of our island is not for every- 
one’s palate, I fear, 8enora^'‘ observed one of the men 
beside her. “ It is not every foreigner who takes to it 
like your countryman vis-d-vis.^' 

Till then I had been uncertain of her nationality, 
though I had had my suspicions of it, for the Anglo- 
14 


200 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


Saxon walk differs from the gait of the southern na- 
tions; hut on this slender introduction we dropped 
into conversation, and spoke in English of those 
desultory matters which one does chat upon to a 
casual hotel acquaintance. 

We others had ended our meal before she was mid- 
way, and the Spaniards had finished their cigarettes 
and coffee before she rose. 

“ You say. Sir,” said she, when she pushed the dish 
of burnt almonds finally away, and rolled her napkin 
into its ring — “ you say, Sir, that you are staying here 
some time. So am I. It is my happiness to know the 
island well. If I can be of any use to you, command 
me. I see, with regret, that you are blind.” 

I’m afraid I frowned angrily. She had touched me 
on my only sore point. “ Madame,” I said, “ I con- 
gratulate you on your clear-sightedness. I flatter my- 
self that I conceal my blindness from most people. I 
dare lay a heavy wager that none of the others who 
have been sitting round this table has so much as 
guessed at it.” 

“ I had — that is, I knew someone intimately, sir, 
whose eyesight had been destroyed. So you see I 
naturally noticed trifles about you which would escape 
others. But you may trust me not to mention a word 
about it. A Dios, Sefior, y diez mil per dons. 

She rose and bowed. I did the same. I was angry 
with the woman and yet attracted by her, and at the 


CAMARADERIE. 


201 


same time ashamed of being so. I suppose these three 
conflicting emotions combined to make me careless. 
Anyway, the next thing that happened was that I, 
wlio never stumbled, found myself blundering over a 
rush-seated chair, and sweeping two dessert-plates 
from the table as I clutched out to preserve my bal- 
ance. The waiter, who was in the room, rapped out 
a good round obscene oath of surprise. Nothing but 
the woman’s action could have prevented his discover- 
ing my infirmity. She laughed amusedly, and said in 
Spanish, “ Why, Seflor, one might think you were 
blind. You should look to your path even when you 
are very polite.” And then she drew near me at the 
corner of the table, and rested her elbow against mine 
as skilfully and unobtrusively as Sadi himself could 
have done it. 

“ You see, I know better than to grip you by the 
arm,” she said, dropping into English again. 

“ You have a skill and tact that not one in a 
million possesses. I am deeply grateful.” We were 
at the foot of the stone stairs. I had my hand on the 
slim iron rail. 

“You will be able to get back to your rooms 
now ? ” 

“ Perfectly.” 

“ Then again d Diosy 
“ A Dios. But shall I not see you again ? ” 

She laughed quietly. “ Whenever you please, sir. 


202 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


I shall probably be staying in this hotel for some time 
yet.” 

“ Would you,” I began, and felt myself to flush as 
I spoke, though no novice at chatting with most kinds 
of woman — “Are you in a hurry, that is? Would 
you come out into the patio down the passage yonder, 
and sit awhile? We shall And some hammock chairs, 
and if the glare off those tall white walls hurts you, 
there is an awning to pull down.” 

She assented very gracefully, and we sat there for 
a couple of hours, afterwards strolling out past the 
great cathedral and on to the walls whilst the sun 
sank into the water beyond the little lateen-sailed 
flshing-boats that dotted the bay. With clever unob- 
trusive tact she made herself my eyes. Into her talk 
she infused the tale of the quick and the still things 
we passed in our stroll, never entering into pointed 
descriptions, but rather mentioning them in her chat 
as though they were of interest to herself alone. 

And afterwards, in the evening, she was kind 
enough to come to a box I had secured at the opera- 
house — a building which is almost equal to La Scala — 
and I had the delight of seeing Balfe’s “ The Talis- 
man ” acted, as well as of listening to the music. 

She was a woman of perfect self-reliance. She had 
seen men and women and places. She knew well how 
the restrictions of Society were ruled, but she was quite 
capable of mapping out her own line of conduct to suit 


CAMARADERIE. 


203 


her own ideas. At least I deduced as much, though 
we exchanged no single word upon the subject. There 
had arisen between us a camaraderie that, for me, was 
delightful. Sadi was good, but his companionship 
had its limits. She was all Sadi was, and more. It 
would be a poor compliment to say she was everything 
a male comrade could be. She was woman through it 
all. She was thoughtful, bright, amusing, resourceful. 

Yet we never verged beyond the bounds of mere 
camaraderie, nor do I think that either of us wished 
to do so. 


XYT. 


CKUELLY INTEKRUPTED. 

For the life of me I cannot say now who proposed 
it. I think the scheme must have been evolved spon- 
taneously between us. But the fact remains that next 
morning saw Mrs. Cromwell and myself driving out 
through the aMy puer to by the railway station and the 
Plaza de Toros, and out along the level road across 
the plain, towards the hills that skirt it. She knew 
the island thoroughly, knew every inch of it one 
might say, and understood and appreciated the people 
of all grades. I could not have found anywhere a 
more interesting companion. 

The old Mallorcan nobility, the oldest in Europe, 
are but little in evidence. They stay indoors, and 
outside their old palaces one hears little about them. 
Even in Palma, where times change but slowly, times 
have changed for them. They are woefully hard up 
— the result of heavy gambling in a past generation, 
and the depreciation of land in this. Indeed, with 
one exception, all classes down to the peasants are 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


205 


poor; but they are not unhappy. It would be im- 
possible to find a race more contented with their lot. 
There is no absolute poverty. Bean porridge can be 
got almost for the asking, and if one eats bean por- 
ridge enough, one is not hungry. Their other wants 
are very few, and they are easily supplied. So that 
practically speaking, everyone, even the very poorest, 
is well off. 

Life for the Mallorcan does not consist of making 
money. He rather goes to the other extreme, and 
takes it as meant for doing nothing in, for chatting, 
for smoking indifferent cigarettes, for strolling about 
under a melodramatic black cloak with crimson plush 
lining, and for other enjoyments. He has no marked 
objection to money when it comes to his hand, but he 
will neither stoop nor climb to gather it. Allah has 
given him a lovely and fruitful island with a perfect 
climate, and a store of philosophical contentment, and 
a theory of life called the manana theory which utter- 
ly eliminates hurry. He wisely does not try to go 
against these things that Allah has arranged, and con- 
sequently most of his time is spent in rigorous far 
niente. 

It is only the women of Mallorca who work when 
they have got nothing else to do. In these frequent 
intervals they whitewash their dwellings and neigh- 
bourhood generally ; which gives sanitation and neat- 


ness. 


206 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


Of the only wealthy class in Mallorca she seemed 
reluctant to speak. They were converted Jews, lo- 
cally known as Chiietas. I found she had somehow 
imbibed a notion that I too was a Jew ; but when 
I emphatically denied the impeachment, and said that 
I strongly hated Jews, she told me about these Chuetas. 

They are the Christianised lineal descendants of 
those Spanish Jews who in the old days disliked the 
alternative auto da /e, and preferred to ’vert. To-day 
they are a caste distinct to themselves, intermarry, 
and are loathed by all the other natives with a great 
loathing, and have no communications with outsiders 
except upon business. Needless to say this last item 
is a large one, and in reality accounts for all the 
others. The Mallorcans are an easy-going race, and 
if they get hard cash to-day, repayment is a matter 
for manana, and therefore unworthy of consideration. 
And so the Chuetas have contrived to get the upper 
hand all through the country. They might be for- 
given for neglecting to toil and spin, for that is the 
custom in general favour ; but the other idiosyncrasy 
rankles, and from noble to put a, every soul hates, ab- 
hors, and detests them. A man, an Englishman, who 
had not entered the island till middle life, told how 
he came there with tolerant notions, and thinking the 
treatment of these tribesmen unjust, cultivated the 
acquaintance of many of them. But he said he soon 
had to give them up. Their language, their thoughts. 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


207 


their sentiments, their mode of life, were alike dis- 
gusting. He understood why that low-grade puta 
who had been offered marriage by a wealthy Chiieta 
had spat in his face by way of answer. They were 
utterly unfit to associate with. It was the old tale : 
kick a dog for centuries and he becomes an utter cur, 
and cur he will remain for centuries to come. And 
yet by a ghastly irony, the most devout of the devout 
Palman Catholics is the hated and despised Palman 
Cliueta. 

The mules were dragging our carriage across the 
plain whilst she told me these things about the people, 
and at intervals she served me as eyes to note the 
beauties that we passed. There were orchards of 
almond-trees that seemed from a distance to be bear- 
ing a crop of snow-flakes, till one came nearer and 
could distinguish the delicate pinks and mauves of 
their blossom ; there were bushy algobras with rich 
green foliage; oranges bearing the last of that juicy 
crop which, when fresh-gathered, melts in the mouth 
like ice ; olive-trees with dry grey leaves and trunks 
so grotesquely gnarled as to suggest arboreal pain. 
The hot sun above dappling the young corn and fill- 
ing the stone water-conduits with soft tree-shadows; 
the tinkling twitter of unseen birds ; the repose every- 
where, made up a charm which my poor words refuse 
to utter. And yet she made me feel it all, and more 
besides. 


208 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


We approached the cup-edge of the mouutain. To 
a Spaniard all trees except fruit-trees mean so many 
cubic feet of wood for building or charcoal. As Spain 
and Italy both know, climates change when the forests 
go, and the crops suffer from long droughts or heavy 
deluges which sweep the soil bodily away in spite of 
laboriously-built stone terraces or concrete-lined water 
ducts. But that is for manana. The timber is wanted 
for to-day, and down it comes. Yet from a merely 
scenic point of view this ruthless axemanship is hardly 
to be deplored where we were then. The rocks were 
bare, save for scattered dark-green dottings of pine or 
ilex perched where they could not readily be come at ; 
they were full of fantastic shadows ; they were shaven, 
grey and rugged ; they were unspeakably grand. 

The crags closed in as we went on, and the hiss of 
the stream which had neared the road began to drown 
the bird-songs. Some of the hills beside us were 
clothed with green shrubs, and some were gaunt and 
bare, of homely grey splashed with red. Ahead there 
was a wee white house, apparently balanced like an 
eagle’s nest in an inaccessible eyrie. The orchards 
had gone, but the stony land was still scratched up to 
receive cups, and laboriously terraced to keep the soil 
from being swilled into the sea. 

The hills pressed further together into a rocky 
gorge with the rut of the road perched high on one 
side, and the stream brawling away fifty feet below. 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


200 


Goats with tinkling bells were flitting about the crags 
like so many brown flies. One began to wonder 
whether the road was not a cul-de-sac^ and whether 
Valledemosa did not lie in some other direction. 
There seemed absolutely no outlet except for wings. 

But with an angle of the gorge one opened out a 
new scene. Another wide valley lay ahead of us 
through which the road wound steeply, past women 
gathering the purple olives from the turf beneath the 
trees, past laden orange-trees, and sprawls of prickly 
pears, and flelds of sprouting beans. 

And then we came to two yellow gate-posts, on one 
of which was the date 1063, whilst the other bore this 
inscription: “viT^ in inroitr ^dis sanct^ 

EXUS.” 

“ Valledemosa is here,” said my companion, “ the 
village beside that convent where Madame Dudevant 
brought Chopin to die, and from which she took him 
away full of new life. The mules will bait here. It 
is for you to say whether we go on, or return to 
Palma?” 

“ From the day when I lost my eyes to this day,” 
was my reply, “ I have never known what it was to see 
the shapes that God has builded on the face of the 
earth, or the colours with which He has painted them. 
Mind, I have never whined for the sight that was 
taken away from me. I have accepted my Kismet^ 
and have made it as bright as thought and contrivance 


210 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


could manage. I believe, without egotism, that there 
are few blind men who have trained themselves to be 
as conscious of their surroundings as I am. But my 
powers have great limitations. However preternatu- 
rally sensitive a man may be to all manner of sounds, 
he cannot tell everything from sound alone, not even 
though his sense of touch besides is laboriously refined. 
Without the gift of sight there must always be (so I 
had been forced to decide) a black gaping hiatus 
which it seemed that no human power could fill. Of 
my helpers, till yesterday, Sadi was the only one who 
showed the least fraction of talent ; yet even his best 
efforts could scarcely throw a glimmer through the 
cloud. 

“ But to-day you have done what I believed no 
breathing person could do. You have worked a mir- 
acle. You have made me to see as with mine own 
old eyes. Heaven grant that this is not all a dream to 
be waked up from.” 

We spent that night at the Archduke’s hospitar 
at Miramar — near Raymond Lully’s birthplace — where 
free housing is given to any passer-by for three days, 
with olives, salt and oil, the typical trio, provided. In 
the evening I told her across the brazero a tale that had 
never crossed my lips before, the tale of how I had 
lost my eyes. I took her in my story to the south 
of Africa and led her out over green rolling veldt to a 
hawthorn- crowned kopje where we lay out of sight 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


211 


amongst the bushes. I explained to her that I was a 
diamond merchant and that I was waiting there for 
men who were to bring me stones for sale. And then 
I told how instead of those I expected others came 
out of the soft black tropical night in turn mistaking 
me also for someone else. They thought I was there 
for I. D. B. — I, an honest trader, — and not daring to 
kill, had loaded their guns with rock-salt. I told her 
how the first charge had struck me full in the face and 
destroyed my sight for ever, how I had got up and 
fled shrieking away, and then lay hid for days in a 
clump of karoo-scrub nursing my hideous pain, and 
wishing for the death which would not come. And 
then I sketched to her the way that Sadi had found 
me and nursed me, and been with me in all those 
groping after years, paying full tribute to his devotion. 

When I had finished she said she wanted to ask 
me one question if she might do so without offence. 

“ Nothing you would say,” I replied, “ can annoy 
me.” 

“ Then tell me, Mr. Pether, were you a registered 
diamond merchant out there ? ” 

“ I was. I swear I was. Had I been there for 
Illicit Diamond Buying I should have deserved all I 
got, and more besides. But after being blinded, 
where was the use of trying to retaliate? Of prov- 
ing it was all a mistake ? Of pressing for a money 
recompense? Imprisoning a man, or fining him, 


212 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


or even blinding him in turn could not restore my 
eyes.” * 

And then I went on to tell her how it was a pure 
Platonic love for diamonds themselves that had 
turned me to trade in those lovely stones ; how their 
iridescent glitter delighted my eye, and how the very 
act of handling them in their dull rough uncut state 
was a joy to me that almost amounted to monomania. 
The theme pleased her, and she asked me to go on. 
I had not spoken of diamonds once during all those 
long years of darkness, and to discourse about them 
again to anyone who took the obvious interest in them' 
that she did was for me an indulgence nothing short 
of delicious. And when we parted for the night, and 
I found myself once more alone, I was almost sur- 

* Note, hy another hand. Enquiries pushed by one Talta- 
vull through the agents of iny brotherhood in the neighbour- 
hood of Du Toit’s Pan have elicited the following communica- 
tion: “Pether, more generally* known as Conkleton, was a 
regular Jew Kopje- walloper from Petticoat Lane. He had 
abundance of money and was the pest of the diamond fields. 
Several of his runners were caught and convicted, but no case 
could ever be framed against him in person, as he flourished 
before the days of Diamond Registration. However, the charge, 
of I. D. B. grew so strong against him that at last the boys took 
the law into their own hands and rock-salted him. Afterwards, 
he disappeared. The lesson appeared to have been sufficient. 
Rock-salt, so they say, when fired into the skin, hurts.” The 
name of my informant cannot be divulged ; but he is a most 
earnest worker in the Great Cause, and I, Taltavull, will pledge 
my credit on his veracity. (Signed) Taltavull. 

Anarchist Headquarters, Bccrcelona. 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


213 


prised that I had said nothing about this new enter- 
prise in the diamond industry which fortune had 
thrown in my way. I feel sure,” 1 told myself, 
“ that she will share this great secret. She is the 
one person in this world for me to trust. But I 
cannot part with it yet. Besides, I have only known 
her two days. Time enough when we get back to 
Palma.” 

We went out afoot after breakfast next morning, 
and during all that day I revelled in the beauties of 
Miramar, the finest piece of cliff- and coast-scenery 
in Europe. There is one of the many watch-towers 
here, a grey old building whose architect was dead 
before the Pharaohs or even the Phoenicians began to 
pile stones together, and yet the old citadel has not 
bent one inch to all that string of time. We as- 
cended half-way outside up a ladder and entered a 
small domed chamber. Then we climbed together, 
on to the roof, which is half a covered sentry-house, 
half a balustraded look-out post. We could hear the 
rattle of the surf creaming away twelve hundred feet 
below ; and could look down almost sheer into the 
many-hued blue water ; and behind there were moun- 
tains rising abruptly up into the clouds. The view 
was incomparable. 

Then we went down again, winding along a narrow 
path that was edged with flowering heath, and gained 
a jutting crag which seemed almost to overhang the 


214 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


water ; and going on further amongst the wind-brushed 
pines, we came to another spot which we had previously 
viewed from above. It was a little round stone ora- 
tory perched on the crest of a jutting pinnacle and 
linked to the main rock by a narrow causeway which 
rested on a slender arch. It was lit by a lantern in the 
roof, and over the altar was the marble effigy of a man 
of years. 

I do not know why it was, but as we stood on the 
balcony outside that tiny chapel, leaning over the rail, 
and listening to the murmur of the woods beside and 
of the w^aters beneath us, I almost felt impelled to 
there and then show my companion that little wooden 
case I carried in my breast-pocket, and tell her of the 
vast and wonderful secret it contained. In fact, I be- 
lieve it was the very greatness of the impulse which 
made me resist it. I am the last man to be called 
superstitious, but it seemed to me then that old Lully’s 
shade was hovering near his birthplace, and was busy- 
ing itself in my direction. I did not like the guidance, 
and so resisted it ; and directly afterwards we strolled 
back across the bridge, and on through the woods 
again. 

I cannot, I will not tell in detail how the next few 
days passed. The little idyl concerns no one but my- 
self — and one other — and there is no reason to desecrate 
them by bawling its delicate folds abroad. Suffice it 
to say that we went on through Deya to Soller, and 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


215 


then taking mules, climbed the mountain passes to the 
convent of Nuestra Sefiora de Lluch. 

“You can stay here if you choose,” observed my 
companion, as our mules drank out of the fountain, 
basin in the courtyard. “ Inside the big doorway yonder 
is written up '‘Silencio’’ and ‘ Vir prudens taceUt^' hut the 
monks are not overstrict, and, like the Archduke at 
Miramar, they offer free hospitality to all wayfarers. 
If you have never stayed in a convent of this kind be- 
fore the experience will amuse you.” 

“ And you ? ” 

“ Oh I shall go on to Pollensa, and you can join 
me there if you choose, to-morrow.” 

“ But why not remain here ? ” 

She laughed. “ I’m afraid I belong to the anti- 
monkish set. True they might offer me house-room 
— I do not say they wouldn’t — but I do not care for 
putting myself in the way of being refused.” 

“ Then,” said I, “ I don’t think a convent is very 
much in my way just at present. I will push on for 
Pollensa too.” 

And so thither we went together, covering the 
short distance to Alcudia on the afternoon of next 
day. 

But at Alcudia there was a rude awakening, and, 
thanks to a woman’s wit, a narrow escape awaiting 
me. It turned out that Cospatric and Haigh had 
added brains to their own council in the form of a 
15 


216 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


scoundrelly anarchist, and were hot-foot upon the 
trail. Mrs. Cromwell heard my name mentioned as 
she came back into the cafe from some small errand 
in the town, and instead of returning to the sitting- 
room up-stairs, ordered coffee and sat down near three 
strangers who were talking in English. She was soon 
in conversation with them, and from one and the 
other cleverly elicited the whole tale of their adven- 
ture. They seemed overjoyed, poor fools, to discover 
in her tastes for pottery, music and tattooing, and 
waxed garrulous without the smallest suspicion. Much 
was incomprehensible to her, but she sat on there far 
into the night thinking that what she could learn 
might be of service to me. 

Made anxious by her absence, I had descended the 
narrow stairs to inquire after her, and nearly burst in 
upon their conclave. A recognition of their voices 
made me pull up with my fingers on the latch ; and 
then return with a cat’s tread to the place whence I 
had come. 

A week ago my first impulse would have been to 
evacuate the spot there and then, so that even if I 
were followed, my start would be a good one. But 
the last few days had changed me much. From being 
absolutely self-reliant, I had grown to be curiously 
dependent again. I shrank from taking a fiight 
alone. And moreover there was another thing that 
held me back : I could not bear to rush away so sud- 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


217 


denly from my companion. It seemed to me that if 
I deserted her then, I should never see that woman 
more ; and rather than that should befall I was pre- 
pared to brave anything. So I waited in that bare 
whitewashed sitting-room, and waited, and waited till 
she came ; fearing desperately for the safety of my 
great treasure, yet determined to expose it to any risk 
rather than beat retreat alone. 

It was a torturing vigil. 

The clocks had long struck midnight, and the 
sereno had several times raised his dirge-like chaunt 
in the street beneath before my companion came to 
me. She wasted no time in preliminaries. I think 
she could see by my outward expression that I knew 
how danger threatened, and so she told in as few 
words as possible what she had learnt. “ I hope you 
can understand it,” she said at the conclusion. “ I 
confess the most is gibberish to me, but it seemed to 
concern you, and so I thought would be interesting.” 

“ I am deeply grateful. But let me explain.” 

“ Don’t think it an obligation, Mr. Pether. There 
seems to be some little mystery about the matter, and 
I do not want to pry into your affairs.” 

“ I wish you would.” 

“ Why?” 

“ Because, then I could feel that you took an in- 
terest in me.” 


218 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ Believe me I do : a deep interest.” 

I groped and found her hand. It pressed mine 
with a slight tremble. 

“ You pity me because I am blind.” 

“ I am deeply grieved for your misfortune.” 

“ Ah ” — I dropped the hand, and sighed regret- 
fully — “only pity. But then what else could I ex- 
pect ? ” 

“ What would you have ? ” she asked softly. 

“ I had hoped for love. I had prayed that I might 
be loved, as I love.” 

And then ? Why honestly I do not know how it 
came about. But in a minute or so each knew con- 
cerning the other all there was to tell. 

“ I should not even mind resigning the Kecipe 
now that I have got you,” I told her. 

“ Ah but,” she said, with a little laugh, “ if we are 
going into partnership, you and I, the interests of the 
firm must be looked after. There is no packet leav- 
ing the island for two days, so you must wire Sadi in 
Palma to hire a steamer and have it ready for us. 
The train leaves La Puebla at 7.55. We will go down 
to meet it by that.” 

“ But Cospatric and his friends will most certainly 
go by the same train.” 

She put her lips to my ear and whispered, and 
then we laughed, and I took paper and pen and wrote 
a long letter. 


CRUELLY INTERRUPTED. 


219 


She read over my shoulder. 

“ Admirable. Monsieur L’Aveugle, your friends 
will either stay here and rave, or else start on a wild 
goose chase across the mountains to Soller. And we, 
you and I, Nat, we will go far away, away to — ” 

She did not finish the sentence. She stooped and 
kissed me instead. 


\_Michael Cospatric again resumes speech?^ 

XVII. 

VENTRE A TERRE. 

“ Now,” said Haigh, as the anarchist reappeared 
dressed, and tore away down the stairs, “ it seems to 
me a reasonable supposition that there’s movement in 
front of us to-day, and so it’s as well to prepare for it. 
I’m not a breakfast eater myself, and coffee and cog- 
nac will be all I can manage ; but I’d advise you, as 
you are talented in that direction, to stow away as 
much solid food as you can lay your hands upon. 
The Lord knows what wild paper-chase that frock- 
coated idiot will try to lead us on when he turns up 
again. That is, always supposing he does turn up, 
for, to tell the truth, I shouldn’t be surprised if he 
made a bolt of it at this stage of the proceedings, and 
just played on for his own hand. And to let you 
into a secret, dear boy, I shouldn’t be very savage if 
he did sell us in that way. We’ve got some good 
plunder as it is, and there’d be a devil of a lot of 
bother with one thing and another if we set about to 
collar the rest.” 


VENTRE A TERRE. 


221 


“ I can’t say,” I observed, “ that I should object to 
being a billionaire myself. I’ve never tried the sen- 
sation, and I daresay there are drawbacks to it ; but 
still, after a man’s been beastly hard up all his days, 
he doesn’t mind going to a little trouble to make a 
big haul.” » 

“You’re energetic, old man ; I’m not; and that’s 
the difference between us. When I’ve specie in my 
pocket, I’ve never been in the habit of exerting my- 
self to grab more till that’s spent. I adopt the prin- 
ciple which obtains hereabouts, and shrug my shoul- 
ders, and say ‘ maflana.'* However, if you’re still on 
the gathering tack, I’m on for helping you to the 
limit of my small ability. Only as I say, I’m not 
wonderfully keen on it from my own point of view.” 

We breakfasted leisurely, the one sketchily, the 
other with emphasis, according to our appetites, and 
had just lit tobacco when the swing-doors of the cafe 
clashed and the anarchist rushed in. 

“ I have ordered a carriage,” he exclaimed. 
“ Come at once ; we must meet at the stable. There 
is no time to drive round here. We shall barely catch 
them as it is.” 

“ Ho, ho,” said Haigh, placidly, “ so you’ve hit 
off the trail, have you ? Pollensa and Soller, is it ? ” 
“No, Seftor^ your guess was a true one. They 
drove off to catch the Palma train at La Puebla. 
But come at once, or I must go alone.” 


222 the recipe for DIAMONDS. 

So we went off with him to the estaUo ^ 
into a sacking-floored shandrydan, and rattled bois- 
terously through the narrow streets of Alcudia. Once 
on the broad level road beyond the walls, the driver, 
who had already received his orders, made the cattle 
stretch out into a canter, and the pace was pretty 
smart. But it did not equal TaltavulPs impatience, 
and every minute or so out went his head and beard 
bidding the driver to hasten, and hasten ; and the 
driver, crouched there in his little penthouse rum- 
bled out fierce ar-e-ees^ and prodding forth a blue- 
sleeved arm beneath his blanket, lashed the scraggy 
mules into a gallop. 

“ Good for any one with a torpid liver, this,” said 
Haigh. 

“ Senor^^"* exclaimed the anarchist, “ how can you 
have the face to speak of trivialities at such a mo- 
ment ? Is it nothing to you what we have at stake ? ” 

“ On the contrary, it is decidedly something. But 
I don’t let that confounded Recipe worry me unduly, 
as you appear to do. Cospatric, give me a match, 
there’s a good fellow.” 

The old man glowered on him sourly, and turned 
to urge the driver for increased speed. 

We flew past the brown vine-stumps, and the 
mule-gins above the wells, and the many ducts and 
gutters which drain the marshes, our animals steam- 
ing as they strained at the traces, and the driver 


VENTRE A TERRE. 


223 


jerking about like some frenzied jumping-jack as 
he forced them on. The pace was almost racing 
pace, and to be in a race always warms one’s blood. 
I began to share Taltavull’s excitement. He was 
looking at his watch ever and anon, at each time cry- 
ing that we should have scarcely time to meet the 
train. And yet it was evident that the mules could 
go no faster. 

I cast about me for some means of increasing the 
pace, and I was not long in hitting off an idea. It 
was not very brilliant, but I thought it worth sharing, 
and so spoke : 

“ Look here. Monsieur Taltavull, if we chuck some 
of the ballast overboard the mules will have less to 
drag, and we shall go faster. The only thing is, have 
we enough money with us to afford it ? ” 

“ Explain, explain ! I cannot understand your 
barbarous sentences.” 

“ Why* we can smash off the lid and most of the 
sides of this ramshackle Noah’s ark till it’s as light as 
a Yankee trotting waggon. The only thing is, we 
must pay the driver cash down, or he may object and 
stop, and we shall lose time that way.” 

The anarchist unbuttoned his waistcoat, and, rip- 
ping away the lining, brought out a sheaf of notes. 
“A man,” said he, “who never knows one minute 
whether he may not be arrested and have his pockets 
cleared the next, should never be without these. Se- 


224 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


fior Briton, use your big strength and tear away all 
that seems you good. I will satisfy the driver.” 

“ Hooray ! ” shouted Haigh. “ If there’s one thing 
I do love it’s destruction. Cospatric, I’ll bear a hand 
here. Now, then, heave with those big shoulders of 
yours ; tear and rip ; splinter and smash ; don’t spare ; 
the thing’s got no friends. Use your feet, old chap- 
pie, if you want to : all’s fair here. Faith, look at 
that worthy farmer toting up his mule-cart load of 
seaweed for manure ! ” He broke off into a roar of 
laughter, and hove a cushion right against the man’s 
gaping mouth as we tore past. “ If he doesn’t go 
home and report us to his wife and cronies as stark 
staring maniacs, I’m a Scotchman. Whoop! work 
away, Don Miguel. There’s more joy over one brick 
hove through a window-pane than in a whole house 
furnished on the hire system. Ain’t we making a 
bully wreck of it ? Good business ! wrench away the 
back of this seat, and I’ll lug off the steps. ' Are-e-ee! 
Send those beasts along, Pedrillo. Make ’em burn 
the ground ! ” 

The lust for destruction, when once thoroughly lit 
in an able-bodied man, is not an easy flame to extin- 
guish, and in consequence we went ruthlessly on with 
the dismantlement of the carriage, till even Taltavull, 
hardened destructor as he was himself, was fain to call 
upon us to leave off. 

“But don’t you think,” said Haigh, “that we 


VENTRE A TERRE. 


225 


might just snap the thing in two amidships, and leave 
the hind wheels and all the back part behind ? It 
would ease the load by at least three hundredweight, 
and I think we could all perch on the footboard in 
front. I’m sure the pole would keep it right side up.” 

However, it was judged that quite enough was 
done already, and though Haigh seemed inclined to 
argue, further freaks were put a stop to by another 
incident turning up. 

The pace had slackened. 

Taltavull shrieked for the driver to quicken, and 
the driver used the butt of his whip-stock with true 
Southern mercilessness. 

“ Why, that poor brute of a near mule has a stone 
in its shoe,” Haigh called out. “It’s going dead 
lame.” 

“ I know,” said Taltavull. “ It’s a great nuisance, 
but it can’t be helped. The stone may be knocked 
out again.” 

“ The stone won’t be knocked out again. It’s 
jammed firmly in, and gets set tighter every time it 
touches ground. The mule’s in awful pain.” 

“ I can’t help that.” 

“ By God, I can though. Here, pull up.” 

“ Seflor Haigh, you must be mad.” 

“ I may be that, but I’m hanged if I’ll sit here and 
see that poor miserable mule tortured. Here Cospat- 
ric, stand by to grab this elderly person if he inter- 


226 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


feres, and now, Mr. Cocliero, pull ’em up in their 
tracks or I’ll do it for you.” 

The driver did as he was bade willingly enough, 
and Haigh nipped down and levered out the stone 
with his knife. I stayed where I was. I had my 
arms full. To be accurate, they were wrapped round 
the third member of our trio, who was wriggling like 
a demon, and foaming at the mouth in his wrath. 

But after all the halt was only a short one. “ All 
clear,” shouted Haigh, thirty seconds after he had 
descended. Are-e-ee^ and away you go, my tulip. 
Not much time lost there, Senor Taltavull, after 
all.” 

The anarchist favoured him with the most poison- 
ous look of hatred that I ever beheld, and spoke with 
shut teeth : “ If we fail through this halt, Sefior 
Haigh, look to yourself.” 

“ Thanks,” replied Haigh, squinting at him coolly 
enough ; “ I’m quite capable of doing that same ; so 
think well before you play any pranks.” 

AVe didn’t talk much after that, but squatted upon 
our ruin like three bears, the mules meanwhile being 
sent along for all they w^ere worth. It would be hard 
for me to say how long we took over the passage, as I 
didn’t clock it, but I dare bet that we covered the 
ground in record time for a four-wheeled conveyance. 

Only once Haigh spoke. “If we miss this 7.55 
train, when’s the next ? ” he asked. 


VENTRE 1 TERRE. 


227 

“ Five fifty- five in the afternoon,” returned Talta- 
vull, gloomily. 

“ Surely there’s a train out of La Puebla before. 
The service can’t be as fragmentary as all that.” 

“ Yes, another train leaves there at 2.45 for the 
San Bordils junction, but it doesn’t go through, and 
there is no connection on.” 

“ And how far is it by road to Palma ? ” 

The old man did not know, and so I mentioned 
that the fifty-five kilometre post was by the quay at 
Alcudia Port. 

“ Oh, come,” said Haigh, “ that isn’t so bad, after 
all,” but what he meant I did not understand, as he 
relapsed into silence again. But we were pulling in 
the last knots very rapidly then, and presently we 
passed the cemetery, and got into the wished-for La 
Puebla. We tore through the place with the one 
casualty of a small black porker run over and left 
squalling in the road, and pulled up before the station 
in time to see the 7.55 train steam out along the metre- 
gauge track. 

Taltavull rushed into the waiting-room, and tried 
to storm the barricade, offering threats, money, any- 
thing to have the train stopped if only for three 
seconds whilst he got on board. But the officials were 
stolid and obdurate ; they were unaccustomed to hurry 
and flurry ; and they refused to do anything to help 
him ; and the old man came out to us again, wringing 


228 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


his bony hands and using language that was plaintive 
and powerful alternately. 

Meanwhile Haigh had shown unwonted activity. 
The populace of La Puebla, roused by our furious 
passage through the town, had followed hot-foot after 
us to stare at the ragged vehicle, and to throw ten 
score of questions at the driver, who, from a casual 
acquaintance of most of them, had sprung into a 
public character. So hurried had the summons been 
that many of them — of both sexes, save the mark — 
had apparently run out of doors in the apparel which 
served them under the bedclothes. Through this 
crowd Haigh shouldered his way with a leery grin 
which seemed to win every heart (more especially the 
female ones), and went over to a double-muled carriage 
that was drawn up in front of the little casa across 
the way. It was a private carriage, and the coachman 
naturally did not own the animals, but Haigh flourished 
under his nose three hundred-jt?esc^« notes, and before 
that mine of wealth the man’s honesty fell. With his 
own hands he started untracing his cattle. 

Seeing what was in the wind, I stepped down and 
with ready help from the crowd set free the jaded ani- 
mals that had brought us so far ; and before our 
frock-coated companion had well emerged from the 
station again, we had picked him up, and were off 
once more as hard as we could pelt. He was a goodish 
man at plotting and planning beforehand, that same 


VENTRE A TERRE. 


229 


Taltavull, but when it came to brisk action he wasn’t 
always prompt enough. A bit of a reverse seemed to 
daze him. 

“ It’s money that makes the world go round,” re- 
marked Haigh after we had got beyond the cheerful 
howls of the crowd, and our two fine mules had settled 
down to a steady hand-gallop. “ If you look, you’ll 
just see the tail end of the train swinging out of sight 
round that curve. If we have any luck and the engine 
yonder doesn’t forget its dignity and exceed the ortho- 
dox Spanish crawl, we should overhaul ’em before they 
make the next station. Our present pace is distinctly 
good. It’s a clinking fine pair, this I’ve requisitioned, 
and from the condition they’re in, it’s plain to see 
they haven’t been rattled along like this for a longish 
time. I guess somebody’ll be wrath when he sees the 
two screws his coachy has swapped for them. How- 
ever, the resultant ructions are for manana^ and suf- 
fice it for the present, we’re having a regal time. 
Come cheer up. Monsieur Taltavull, you aren’t half 
enjoying yourself.” 

“ It is terrible, this uncertainty,” groaned the old 
man, the words being jolted out of him in gasps. 
“ We do not know whether or no the wretches are in 
that train after all. We may even be racing away 
from them. Senores, you have been too precipi- 
tate.” 

“ Precipitate ? ” rejoined Haigh, “ not a bit of it, 


230 


THE KECIPE FOR DIAMOJ^DS. 


amigo. Both ‘ wretches,’ as you are pleased to style 
them, are in a drab-lined first-class compartment in 
the middle of the centre coach. I saw Madame Crom- 
well looking at us through the window, and took off 
my hat to her. She bowed, and mentioned our pres- 
ence to M. L’Aveugle. So you see they understand 
our game, and see that we have tumbled to theirs. 
Three A. B’s. to a clever woman and a wiley blind 
man. The latter combination is slightly the weaker 
one, and therefore is allowed start according to the 
ordinary handicap. Nothing could be fairer. I’m 
open to back either side for a win in anything up to 
ten carats of diamonds.” 

Bar accidents, it seemed to me certain that we 
must overtake the train ; but as we went along, the 
Book of our Fate read otherwise. Apparently that 
was the only day in the record of the world when a 
Spanish train had run true to time, and with anything 
approaching speed. There was only one explanation 
for it: our rivals must have “got at” the engine 
driver. However, be that as it may, we hung very 
closely on to their heels, and always viewed them 
when the course of the line was at all straight. 

Indeed at the junction of the Manacor branch, the 
train was still in the station as we drove up outside at 
a furious gallop ; but before we could get in, and past 
those infernally placid officials, she steamed out again, 
and we had a desperate run along the platform for 


VENTRE A TERRE. 


231 


nothing. At least, Taltavull and I did. Nothing 
could induce Haigh to pick up his feet for anything 
quicker than a walk. 

We lost ground over this excursion, as the old man 
was so infernally blown with the sprint that he could 
scarcely totter back to the carriage ; and by the time 
we had got under weigh again, the tail of the train 
was a good two kilometres ahead. But the mules 
were all the better for the short breather, and enter- 
ing gamely into the spirit of the thing, stretched out 
into a long swinging lope that kept the chase from 
gaining a single inch. 

It was their frequent halts at the little wayside 
stations that helped us on, and if we had only had the 
gumption to fly on past the junction, when we were 
level, we should have been able to board the train at 
the next stop without hurry. However, we only dis- 
covered that afterwards, and as the mistake once made 
could not be rectified, we held grimly on. 

Hills bothered us a little at times, and the wind- 
ings of the road added to our handicap ; hut when at 
last we came down to the semicircular plain on whose 
edge Palma stands, we thought we saw victory ahead. 

“ There’s between eight and ten kilometres to do,” 
said Haigh, “ and as it’s all on the flat and straight, 
we should with luck be home first, and waiting to 
meet them.” 

“ Don’t you he too cock-sure,” said I. “ It isn’t all 
16 


232 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


over but the shouting by a very long chalk. If you 
notice, there’s been some rain falling here, and down 
on the flat there’s been a lot by the look of it. I’m 
afraid that will mean heavy going for our wheels.” 

As we got down to the level, this evil prophecy 
showed itself a true one. There was gluey mud on the 
well-made track often three inches deep, and though 
our driver flogged industriously, the tired mules were 
seldom able to muster up anything better than a lum- 
bering canter. We had the train in sight all the time, 
and could see that we were dropping astern at every 
stride. It was very mortifying. 

But as the race neared its close Fortune again 
pulled a string in our favour. A distant whistle 
screamed, and we saw the train gradually bring up 
to a standstill alongside a signal-post. The respite 
was not for long, for the barrier was soon withdrawn, 
and she steamed into the station ; but it had enabled 
us to see the pair we were chasing come sharply out of 
the buildings, enter a carriage, and get driven away 
through the gate into the city. 

“ What now? ” demanded Haigh. 

“ On after them,” exclaimed the anarchist. 

“ What, in this rattletrap ? ” 

“ Of course,” said I. 

“ But everybody will stare.” 

“ Oh what the devil does that matter ? ” 

“ Why, for myself I must say that in a fashionable 


VENTEE 1 TERRE. 


233 . 


place like this, with a lot of girls about, I — Hullo, 
that settles it though*” 

“ What?” 

“ Look ahead, dear hoy. There’s a heavy cart just 
shed a wheel slap haug in the middle of the puerto. 
The way will be blocked for an hour at least.” 

“Out we get then, and follow ’em to earth on foot. 
Thank goodness, the streets are very crowded, so their 
carriage won’t be able to get along at more than a 
foot’s pace.” 

Our pursuit was not very rapid. Haigh flatly re- 
fused to, move at anything beyond a smart walk, say- 
ing that he should collapse if he did. I could have 
run them down if I had wished, but had no hankering 
for a row in the public streets ; and so stayed with my 
shipmate. And Taltavull we kept with us whether 
he liked it or not. I do not think, though, that he 
was very keen to race on alone. “ They cannot get 
out of the island, Senores,'*^ said he, “as no steamer 
leaves to-day, and they must understand by this that 
they cannot escape us. I suspect that they will go to 
the Fonda de Mallorca and await us there to treat for 
terms.” 

So we wound our way down the narrow busy streets 
(wherein every fifth building was put to ecclesiastical 
uses) and finally landed out into the head of the Calle 
de Conquistador where another surprise awaited us. 

The hotel is in the middle of the hill, and as we 


234 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


arrived in sight of it, we saw our two birds, accom- 
panied by a dark-complexioned chap (whom I took to 
be Sadi, Petber’s confidential valet), get out of the 
vehicle which had brought them so far into another 
smarter one which drove ofi at a rapid pace as soon as 
they were under the tilt. 

Taltavull started wringing his hands. “What 
now, what now ? ” moaned he. 

“ The Lord knows,” said I. “ Where’s the nearest 
hack-stand ? Say, quick.” 

“ At the bottom of the street.” 

“ Well, here’s a tram going down. Up you jump.” 

The three of us hung on the tail-board and rode to 
the bottom of the Calle de Conquistador, where we 
exchanged to the most likely looking vehicle we could 
see. 

“ You saw that carriage that just rushed by down 
towards the harbour?” 

“ Si Senor,'^ grinned the driver. 

“ Then after it like blue hades, and there’s a hun- 
dred pesetas for you when we’re alongside.” 

“ Ah Sehores, muclios gras^ 

“ Drive, you scoundrel, don’t talk.” 

Away we went again, clattering, jolting, rattling 
till the teeth of us were fairly loosened in their steps. 
Sharp to the right it was, past the Longa^ and on by 
the tram-lines alongside the old walls ; then an S-turn ; 
and then a sweep round to the left ; always with the 


VENTRE A TERRE. 


235 


tram-lines beside our tires. We were heading out for 

the suburb of which is beneath the Bellves Castle; 

and what harbourage the fugitives could hope to find 
in that direction, we couldn’t for the life of us imagine. 
But that was their affair. Our business — or the busi- 
ness we made for ourselves — was to get within speak- 
ing range. 

Up the hill we spun, and through the white-housed 
suburb with its orange-trees, and its tattered palms, 
and its sprawling clumps of prickly pears ; and past 
Porto Pi, the silted-up Carthaginian harbour ; and 
then, leaving population and tram-lines behind, we 
opened out on to the magnificent road that sweeps 
round the western horn of Palma Bay. But always at 
a fixed distance in front of us hovered a billowing 
halo of amber-coloured dust which no frenzied strain 
on our part could bring a metre nearer. 

Once where the road wound in stately zigzags down 
the cliff of a slope, our driver took the ditch and cut 
an angle, heading across the rough ground which in- 
tervened ; but the pace had to be lessened, and the 
carriage was nearly wrenched to pieces, and the ex- 
periment was not repeated. We had lost time by it. 

And so the race continued, and the monotony of it 
dulled our interest in surroundings. 

We thought only of the conclusion. Where the 
actual winning-post could be we had given up trying 
to conjecture. “It seems,” Haigh remarked once, 


236 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ that those two fools have made up their minds to 
race round this five-franc bit of an island for so long 
as we three fools choose to chivy them. It’s a mad 
set-out whichever side you take it from, and the fun’s 
evaporating. I don’t know what you chaps are going 
to do, but the next chance I see I’m going to get down 
for a drink. I’m parched within an inch of dissolu- 
tion.” 

How long this state of things went on I can’t tell. 
I was bruised by the bumping from hat to heel, and 
was much engaged in fending myself against further 
abrasions. But at last a sharp cry from the driver 
roused me to look out of one of the window-ports and 
I saw that we had opened out a small bay that was 
backed by a high rocky island of red and yellow stone. 
One end of the island showed a curious profile of a 
man’s face, and I recognised it as Dragonera; but 
what the Bay was called I didn’t remember though I 
had a sort of dim recollection of an anchorage for 
small craft there. 

Anchorage it was sure enough too, for as we rose 
the inlet further, I saw a small screw boat riding there 
to some sort of moorings and lifting languidly to the 
swell. She was an ex-yacht, Cowes or Clyde-built for 
a wager, of the sort one sees in small Mediterranean 
ports for the petty coasting traffic; a lean slender 
craft of some eighty or hundred tons register, with all 
her pristine smartness thoroughly submerged in 


VENTRE 1 TERRE. 


237 


southern happy-go-lucky squalor. There was a faint 
grey pencil of steam feathering away from her escape- 
pipe, and as we drew nearer I saw she had hove short 
and was ready to break her anchor out of the ground 
at a moment’s notice. 

Another cry from the driver called off my atten- 
tion. The carriage ahead had stopped ; its three pas- 
sengers had descended, and hand-in-hand were running 
over the rough ground towards the shore. A small 
dinghy was waiting for them at the edge of the shin- 
gle. So there had been method in their mad scurry, 
after all. 

Our driver cursed and are-e-e‘d and forced his cat- 
tle into a scrambling gallop, and we drew up with the 
deserted carriage whose mules were standing straddle- 
legged, panting as though they were going to burst. 
He pulled up there, but Haigh snatched hold of the 
reins through the front window, and turning the ani- 
mals off the road sent them with a yell into the palm- 
scrub that fringed it. The poor beasts took fright 
and sprang off at fresh gallop, the carriage leaping 
and bumping after them like a tin kettle at a dog’s 
tail ; till at one jolt stronger than the rest it lost bal- 
ance and fell over with a splintering crash to its side. 

We were all heaped over to leeward amongst a 
tidy heap of wreckage, but we soon managed to scram- 
ble out, and saw the fugitives making rapid going to- 
wards their boat. 


238 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“Now, Cospatric, ye wiry divil,” shouted Haigh, 
“ run for all you’re worth, and put Pether in your 
pocket.” 

Olf I started and measured my length twice in the 
first fifty yards. The ground was awfully uneven, 
and the palm-scrub so thick that one could not see 
where to tread. The trio ahead were close upon their 
boat, and it seemed to me an absolute certainty that I 
should be too late. But a fresh crashing amongst the 
spiky shrubs behind made me turn my head, and I 
saw the absurd figure of the old man charging down 
on a mule that he had cut adrift. He passed me like 
a flash, his face glowering like a fiend’s, and he reached 
the shingle just as the dinghy had got two boat- 
lengths away. 

The passengers were encouraging the two sailors 
at the oars to every exertion ; but Taltavull pulled up 
as his mule’s feet splashed in the water, and whipping 
out a blue revolver covered the two rowers and sharply 
bade them stop. They easied in the middle of a 
stroke, and raised their oar-blades glistening and drip- 
ping. 

“ And now, Seflor Pether, I hold you covered. I 
am a dead shot, and if you carry the Recipe a yard 
further away you bring your fate upon your own head. 
I, Taltavull, swear it.” 

I saw Mrs. Cromwell lean over and cover the blind 
man’s body with her own. Sadi also made a move- 


VENTRE 1 TERRE. 


239 


ment, apparently for the same purpose. But Pether 
waved them both back. He slipped a hand into his 
breast pocket, and brought out the little mahogany 
case, 

“ Here it is, Seflor Taltavull. You’ll share the 
contents with your two friends.” 

“ Yes,” exclaimed the old man, stretching out his 
bony hands, “ I have promised.” 

“ Then there you are, Sefior Taltavull,” said the 
other quietly. He deliberately drew back the shutter, 
exposed the yellowy-green film to the full sun-glare, 
and flung it from him with a sideways jerk. 

It flew circling to the anarchist’s feet; and fora 
moment we were all so paralysed with the action that 
no one spoke or moved. Sooner than share or sur- 
render, the man had deliberately destroyed the Recipe 
for good and all. 

The anarchist was first to act. Slowly I saw him 
raise his weapon, and as if fascinated I could not move 
to interrupt him. With a leathery grin of cruelty he 
had brought it to bear, and in another moment there 
would have been murder done. But at that instant a 
flash of something brown shot by, and the old man 
and his mount were bowled over amongst the palm- 
scrub. 

A cavalry reinforcement had arrived. Haigh had 
cut loose another of the mules, and had deliberately 
ridden the old man down. 


240 


THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. 


“ It’s an old polo trick,” said he, with a pleased 
grin. “ Useful when a man persistently crosses you. 
Quite simple when you know it. Good-afternoon, 
Mrs. Cromwell. ‘Afternoon, Juggins, dear boy. 
Let me congratulate you on drawing this game. I 
thought we were going to gather in the beans. Eh, 
what’s that ? ” 

Taltavull was sitting up amongst the scrubs, and 
was shaking a trembling fist at the boat and snarling 
out the word “ iconoclast.” 

“ ‘ Iconoclast ’ indeed. Eaith, that’s the pot libel- 
ling the kettle most unjustly. I say, Cospatric, just 
take that melodramatic old fool’s gun away from him, 
and wring his neck if he won’t behave himself. My 
dear Mrs. Cromwell, I must really apologise for our 
companion. I assure you that nothing but stress of 
circumstances could have driven us into such dubious 
society. Well, the fun’s all over now, and I hope you 
and Mr. P. bear no ill-will. I’m sure Cospatric and I 
harbour no grudge.” 

Mrs. Cromwell gave an order, the' boat backed in 
to the shingle, and we found ourselves shaking hands 
with one another, as if we were dear friends who had 
always worked for one another’s welfare. 

“ Mentone and Paris will be our neighbourhoods 
for winter and summer,” said Pether, “ and you two 
men must contrive to beat us up somehow and com- 
pare notes over this mutual score.” 


VENTRE A TERRE. 


241 


“ Ladies are seldom averse to jewellery,” said Haigh. 
“ Will Mrs. Cromwell deign to accept from Mr. Cos- 
patric and myself this small packet of diamonds to be 
mounted as she sees fit ? ” 

In fact, for the space of half an hour we were 
fulsomely civil to one another ; and then they hobbled 
off in the dinghy and the yacht took them I know not 
where ; and we, after putting Taltavull in one of the 
carriages, drove off ourselves to Palma in the other. 

“ Faith,” said Haigh, “ it’s a different man I am 
this day from when I saw you first in Genoa, old 
chappie. But after all this fresh air and exercise I 
must really go on the rampage for a bit. Come now, 
Palma for a few days, and then we’ll hark back to the 
ugly cutter and go off somewhere else. Where shall 
we go ? ” 

“ Note which way the wind blows, and start be- 
fore it.” 

“ Right,” said Haigh. “ There’s nothing like 
having definite plans beforehand.” 


THE END. 



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127. A Woman of Forty. By Esme Stuart. 

128. Diana Tempest. By Miss Cholmondeley. 

Each, 12mo. Paper, 50 cents ; cloth, 75 cents and $1.00. 


New York : D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 



HE COUNTRY SCHOOL IN NEW ENG- 
LAND. By Clifton Johnson. With 6o Illustrations from 


Photographs and Drawings made by the Author. Square 8vo’ 
Cloth, gilt edges, $2.50. 

This volume is so delightfully novel, quaint, picturesque, and so thor- 
oughly infused with the fresh and unsophisticated spirit of childhood, that 
it inspires instant sympathy and appreciation. The author describes suc- 
cessive periods of the country school— the winter and summer terms, the 
scholars in their classes and at the blackboard, their punishments, their 
fishing and coasting, their duties and amusements on the farm — in short, 
the every-day life of the boys and girls of rural New England in the days 
of our fathers and our own. 


'J^HE STORY OF WASHINGTON. By Eliza- 

BETH Eggleston Seelye. Edited by Dr. Edward Eggleston. 
With over 100 Illustrations by Allegra Eggleston. A new vol- 
ume in the “ Delights of History ” Series. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75. 

This book will supply a demand for a life of Washington, the man, of 
convenient size, popular, including the latest results of research, planned ac- 
cording to the methods of the new school of history, and containing illus- 
trations of almost every available subject which the story includes. Mrs. 
Seelye’s book is always interesting, and it is not encumbered with superfluous 
details. It is uniform with “ The Story of Columbus,” by the same author. 


r 


HE ROMANCE OF AN EMPRESS. Catharine 

//, of Russia. By K. Waliszevvski. With Portrait. i2mo. 

Cloth. 

There has been no more extraordinary figure in Russian history than this 
gifted, tempestuous, and dissolute empress, “the Semiramis of the North.” 
M. Waliszewski’s book is based upon unpublished documents in the state 
archives, and upon the memoirs and correspondence of his subject. His 
story of the plots and intrigues, the wars and triumphs, the succession of 
favorites, and the fierce outbreaks with which Catharine’s reign was filled 
makes a most extraordinary historical romance, and presents some fresh as- 
pects of European history. 


A 


FRIEND OF -THE QUEEN. By Paul Gau- 

LOT. With Two Portraits. i2mo. Cloth, $2.00. 


This is the true and intimate life history of the Swedish soldier. Count 
Axel Fersen, whose romantic friendship with the ill-fated Marie Antoinette 
led him gladly to peril his life again and again in vain attempts at rescue. 
The hero of court fetes in the palmy days of Louis XVI, a soldier in our 
Revolution and an aid-de-camp at Yorktown, the disguised coachman of 
Marie Antoinette in the flight which ended so wretchedly at Varennes, the 
Grand Marshal of Sweden, and finally the victim of mob fury, killed like a 
mad dog with sticks and stones in Stockholm, make a career to which his- 
tory offers few counterparts. 


New York : D. APPLETON & CO., i, 3 , & 5 Bond Street. 


NEW JUVENILE BOOKS. 


On the Old Frontier. 

By William O. Stoddard, author of “ Crowded Out o’ Crofield,” “ Little 
Smoke,” “ The Battle of New York,” etc. With lo full-page Illustra- 
tions by H. D. Murphy. i2ino. Cloth, $1.50. 

Q 

In this thrilling story Mr. Stoddard is at his best. He describes the vicissitudes 
of the settlers in western New York, which was the frontier of the last century, the 
homely yet adventurous existence at Pium Hollow Fort, the plottings of the Iro- 
quois, their assemblage in the great Council House, and their final desperate raid. 

Boys of Qreenway Court. 

^ story of the Early Years of Washington. By Hezekiah Butterworth. 
author of “ In the Boyhood of Lincoln,” “ The Zigzag Books,” etc. With 
10 full-page Illustrations by II. W. Pierce. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

Mr. Butterworth’s remarkable ability to write stories which are entertaining and 
at the same time informing has never been better illustrated than in this tale of the 
famous old manor house of Greenway Court, the home of Lord Fairfax, Y'ashing- 
ton's early patron. It is a book full of picturesque incidents and legends, of hunt- 
ing exploits and adventures, and the figure of the young Washington is shown in 
these pages in a light which will be sure to enlist the interest of young readers. 

John Boyd’s Adventures. 

By Thomas W. Knox, author of “ The Boy Travelers,” etc. With 12 full- 
page Illustrations by W. S. Stacey. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

John was a hero of the days when American sailors manned American ships, 
and the ships went everywhere, in spite of pirates and hostile Frenchmen or English- 
men. He went to sea in the early part of the century, and his adventures as an 
Algerine slave, a man-of-war’s-man, an intended victim of Chinese pirates, and 
as a young hero in other .stirring scenes, almost encircle the globe, and enable the 
author to convey much information regarding strange people and countries and the 
history of troublous times. 

Paul Jones. 

By Molly Elliot Seawell, author of ” Little Jarvis,” “ Midshipman 
Paulding,” etc. With 8 full-page Illustrations by H. D. Murphy and 
J. O. Davidson. (Young Heroes of Our Navy Series.) i2mo. Cloth, $1.00. 

Paul Jones, the captain who sailed around the British Isles and bade defiance to 
the entire British fleet, is perhaps the most heroic figure in the naval history of the 
Revolution, and readers old and young will welcome this thrilling story of his ex- 
ploits. 

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, 5 Bond Street. 



In the Track of the Sun. i 

Readings from the Diary of a Globe Trotter. By Frederick Diodat 
Thompson. Profusely illustrated with Engravings from Photograph 
and from Drawings by Ilarry Fenn. Large 8vo. Cloth, gill top, $6.00 

In this magnificently illustrated volume the author describes in an easy, entertaii 
ing, and intelligent manner the tour of the world. Starting from New York, 1 .. 
crosses the continent, sails from Vancouver for Japan, then visits China, Singapoi '' 
Ceylon, and other places, reserving a considerable portion of his time for India an 
Egypt, afterward traversing Italy and France, and returning to New York by way c 
London and Liverpool. Mr. Thompson is an instructive and amusing ciceront 
The illustrations number over two hundred, and include not only scenery, histori' 
and remarkable buildings and street scenes, but also an abundance of studies fror“ 
life which show contrasting types of humanity the world over, ranging from oi [ 
Western Indians to Maharajahs of the Orient, and from the beautiful women < 
Japan to Egyptian fellahs. “ In the Track of the Sun ” gives a bird’s-eye view < ^ 
the world’s picturesque features. 

Poems of Nature. 

By William Cullen Bryant. Profusely illustrated by Paul de Longpr^.- 
8vo. Cloth, gilt, $4.00. * 

These verses offer a full expression of the great poet’s love of Nature. The vol- 
ume contains over forty poems, the list beginning with the classic “ To a Water4 
fowl,” and closing with “ Our Fellow-Worshipers.” M. Longpre, an exact as well as 
a loving student of the fields and forests, has gathered a rich harvest of the American 
flora, and his thoroughly artistic and beautiful studies, comprising nearly one hun 
dred subjects, have the value of truthful records as well as high aesthetic worth. 

Picciola. 

By X. B. Saintine. With 130 Illustrations by J. F. Gueldry. 8vo. Cloth, 
gilt, $1.50. 

“ Picciola : The Prisoner of Fenestrella, or Captivity Captive,” is one of the most 
charming and popular of French classics. The artist has thoroughly sympathized 
with the delicacy and beauty of this tender and touching stoiy'. The book is unifonr- 
with the illustrated editions of “ Colette ” and ” An Attic Philosopher in Paris.” 

The Country School in 
New England. 

By Clifton Johnson. With 6o Illustrations from Photographs and Draw- 
ings made by the Author. Square 8vo. Cloth, gilt edges, $2.50. 

This volume is so delightfully novel, quaint, picturesque, and so thoroughly in- 
fused witli the fresh and unsophisticated spirit of childhood, that it inspires instant ' 
sympathy and appreciation. The author describes and illustrates successive periods . 
of the country school— the winter and summer terms, the scholars in their classes and 
at the blackboard, their punishments, their fishing and coasting, their duties and 
amusements on the farm — in short, the every-day life of the boys and girls of rura 
New England in the days of our fathers and our own. ■ 

For sale by all booksellers ; or will be seat by mail on receipt of price by the publishers. 

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. 








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